CAT ST speeds up 3ds Max character animation workflow. See more videos on Raylight’s YouTube channel.

Originally posted on 4 January: scroll down for updates.

XrayUnwrap and XrayBlendSkin creator Raylight has announced XrayCat Survival Toolkit (or ‘CAT ST’ for short): a new plugin designed to speed up workflow in 3ds Max’s CAT character animation system.

Extending CAT’s native tools
The tool adds shortcuts for the most common tasks when setting up a rig, plus new Layer and Clip Managers – the latter useful for backing up CAT layers and applying them to a new rig.

There is also a new Pose Manager (shown above), which enables users to “copy and paste poses [in Animation Mode], mirror the rig, [and] swap arms, hands, legs and feet with only one mouse click.”

Rig poses are stored with a preview image, making them easier to browse, and a Limb Animation section is included “to switch between IK and FK mode when animating a limb”.

The plugin comes with a set of utilities for importing BIP, BVH, HTR files and other motion-capture data, plus Raylight’s fixed rig resizer script.

Updated 29 March: XrayCat ST is now shipping for 3ds Max 2009 and above. A single licence costs $39.99.

Read more about XrayCat Survival Toolkit on ScriptSpot

Visit Raylight’s website

Tags: 3ds max, add-on, CAT, CAT ST, Character Animation, plugin, Raylight, rigging, XrayBlendSkin, XrayCat Survival Toolkit, XrayUnwrap