Cryptic Animation Rig For Everybody!

Mike Fahey — Thu, 10 May 2007 14:20:11 MDT

Hey, high school kids! Having trouble working on the animations for your latest first person shooter video game? Anyone can map their favorite learning institution into a game level, but to create realistic animations, you need tools, and now Cryptic Studios is giving you those tools, free. In an extremely kick ass move on their part, the creators of City of Heroes and developers of the upcoming Marvel Universe Online game have released their Cryptic Animation Rig for download under the GNU General Public License. Not a demo, and not a crappy Lite version, these are the actual production tools used by the studio itself.

"Our goal is to foster a community of animators by providing them the power to generate animations without having to worry about supporting a toolset. Since we were already developing the rig for our core technology team, we decided to release it to the public under the GNU GPL," said Shayne Herrera, Art Development Director for Cryptic Studios. "We feel that the development and gaming communities will benefit greatly from a professional tool like the Cryptic AR."

Unbelievably cool move. Cryptic is even creating forums on the website to foster a community of animators that can support each other and exchange ideas. Cryptic AR 1.0 can be downloaded right here, right now. Michael Fahey

CRYPTIC STUDIOS RELEASES CRYPTIC ANIMATION RIG

Free Cryptic Animation Rig Now Available Under the GNU General Public License

LOS GATOS, CA - May 11, 2007 - Cryptic Studios, Inc., an independent developer of massively multiplayer online games, announced today its proprietary Cryptic Animation Rig (Cryptic AR) is now available free for download under the GNU General Public License.

"Our goal is to foster a community of animators by providing them the power to generate animations without having to worry about supporting a toolset. Since we were already developing the rig for our core technology team, we decided to release it to the public under the GNU GPL," said Shayne Herrera, Art Development Director for Cryptic Studios. "We feel that the development and gaming communities will benefit greatly from a professional tool like the Cryptic AR."

Cryptic AR allows animators of all experience levels to familiarize themselves with the same tools used in a professional development environment. Unlike other free animation rigs, Cryptic AR is not an approximation of production tools, but the very tools currently being used to produce next-gen game visuals at Cryptic Studios.

"We decided to add the ability to switch and create character skins called 'IDs,' or 'identities,'" said Sean Burgoon, animator and creator of the Cryptic AR. "Cryptic AR version 1.0 ships with three IDs and we plan to release more on a regular basis. We are encouraging user-submitted IDs through the animation community we are creating on our web site."

The Cryptic AR web site will also have forums to serve as the community home for aspiring AR animators. The forums will act as a place to inspire continued creativity in users and support animation needs.

Cryptic AR version 1.0 is now available for download at www.crypticar.com.

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Cryptic Animation Rig For Everybody!