iCrowds is a Blender crowds system from the creators of iCity
The developers of iCity have released iCrowds, a streamlined new Blender crowd simulation add-on for games, animation and architectural visualization work.
It makes it possible to add animated crowds to 3D scenes in a wide variety of ways, including by giving crowd actors Sims-style needs to eat, sleep or go to the toilet.
A lightweight add-on for adding crowds to Blender scenes from the creators of iCity
There are a number of other Blender add-ons for crowd simulation and crowd animation, several of which we’ve covered on CG Channel in the past.
However, iCrowds comes from a developer with a good pedigree: Hothifa Smair’s first Blender add-on was the popular city generator iCity, recently joined by traffic simulation tool iCars.
As with iCars, iCrowds can be used in conjunction with iCity, or as a standalone tool.
It makes it possible to add animated crowds to scenes in a variety of ways, some of which will be familiar from other add-ons, others much less so.
Features seven separate systems for generating static or dynamic crowds
iCrowds features seven separate systems for generating crowds: three dynamic – in which the crowd characters move around autonomously – and four static, in which they stay fixed in place.
Of the dynamic options, the most conventional is the Walkers system, where characters follow bidirectional curve paths, mimicking sidewalks and retail centres.
The Fluid system is more freeform, with characters attracted to or repelled from particular points in the scene, or moving along custom flow curves.
However, the most unusual is the City system, in which crowd actors have motivations similar to those in games like The Sims, including the need to eat, sleep, and use the toilet.
When a need reaches a user-controlled threshold, the crowd character automatically pathfinds to a relevant location, like a bed or a restroom, before moving on.
The static options generate fixed crowds for use cases like creating audiences for sports or entertainment events: there is a dedicated system for creating crowds in stadiums.
There are also general-purpose options for scattering characters on surfaces, vertices, or along curves, or painting them into a scene.
Comes with readymade 3D characters suitable for mid- and background use
Judging from the demo video embedded at the top of this story, iCrowds is suited for creating background or middle-distance crowds for visualizations, animations or games.
It is capable of generating quite large crowds – most of the systems “support up to 100,000 agents [depending] on your hardware and scene complexity” – and comes with 10 readymade 3D characters, each available in low- and high-poly versions, with a range of clothing types.
Price and system requirements
iCrowds is compatible with Blender 4.5+. Individual licenses cost $19.
Read more about iCrowds on the add-on’s Superhive page
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