Raylight releases XrayCat Survival Toolkit for 3ds Max
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.