March 1, 1997 - Arcadia, CA--Visual Information Development, Inc. (VIDI), the technological leader of 3D software on the Macintosh announces the availability, free of charge, of the Presenter 3D Plug-in Software Development Kit for immediate download from the Animators section in VIDI's Presenter 3D user web site at http;//www.webnation.com/vidirep/. The SDK enables programmers and animators with programming skills to create specialized motion effects that obey the laws of physics or produce special effects for their own production and animation needs or for sale. Custom plug-in animator modules can make the animation process easier by automatically controlling object parameters such as rotation, scale, position, color, etc. for each frame. With the ability to access any parameter of any object, plug-in module developers can create exotic motions such as animals running for effects like the dinosaur stampede in the movie Jurassic Park, humans walking and running, of facial expressions like eyes rolling and the mouth moving in consort with words being spoken, or simple effects like object movement, size change, or color variation. Animator plug-ins already included with Presenter 3D are Collision, Flock, Gravity, Path, Shatter, Track, Tread, Wind.

The Presenter 3D Animator Plug-In Development Kit differs from other effects development kits in that the entire hierarchical database, from a single object to groups at any level of the hierarchy, is accessible for manipulation. Plus, the plug-in animator effects created here can be applied in conjunction with other animator effects to easily produce significantly more complex effects. The Presenter 3D Plug-in SDK supports the Metrowerks Code Warrior C, Think C 5.0.4, and Think Pascal 4.0.2 development environments. To help get plug-in animator developers started, source code for a shell plug-in module is included. This "starter" module allows you to immediately start coding the module. The kit provides sample header and source files and a "glue" file that enables animators to talk to the Presenter 3D program, execute transcendental calls, and some SANE calls not normally available from code resource packs.

Serving as plug-in programming references are the source codes for animator modules provided with Presenter 3D. The Gravity plug-in is used to assign a gravity value or select from a series of gravities ranging from the gravity of the moon to the gravity of the sun. Its source code demonstrates creating a popup menu, display and entry of floating point numbers, and moving an object. The Jitter plug-in is used to assign harmonic motion to create effects like lights flickering, the beating of a butterfly's wings, and the piston movement that drives the wheels of a train. Its source code demonstrates creating a popup menu, display and entry of floating point numbers, and moving an object. Its source code demonstrates using a random number generator and modifying just about everything on an object. The Wind plug-in tests the attractive force assigned with the Breakability parameter and based on the assigned strength of the wind, ranging from a light breeze to planetary impact, determines if the object should be sent spinning. Its source code demonstrates saving results for the next event. The source code for the Path animator, which is used to control the motion of an object along a pre-defined contour, provides examples of how to scan the database to find a specific data type, find points along a spline, and rotate an object. The use of Path is demonstrated in the geese flocking simulation of the movie Fly Away Home in the same Animators section as the Presenter 3D Plug-in SDK. The Replace animator source code shows how to modify objects.

When used in conjunction with Presenter 3D's Directional 3D Sound(tm), Multi-Target Morphing, speedy rendering, and Digital Clay(tm) modeling, the animator modules add the magic touch and ease of use that turns the Macintosh into a Digital SoundStage(tm). By adding automatic motion control capabilities to an already powerful animation system, amateur and professional animators can match effects with less effort and expense with effects created for movies like Toy Story and Fly Away Home..

Creating exact motion sequences that simulate natural phenomena or physical motion can be a tedious job in 2D and it becomes even harder in 3D. Motion plug-ins can be used to automatically produce complex movement and make it look natural. These motions, once choreographed, can be used repeatedly without requiring addition motion control animation techniques and re-animating the motions by hand or even with inverse kinematics. This can significantly reduce the amount of time and cost involved in a game, multimedia or broadcast production.

Simulating the varying speed of movement and rotation of objects associated with natural phenomena across a specified time period can be a difficult and time consuming process. Natural effects like wind or gravity that rely on physical properties can be more naturally produced by applying mathematical functions in a plug-in routine. Plug-in animators eliminate the need for precise movement and rotation of parts of objects across precisely determined animation frames. When using natural phenomena plug-ins like Wind and Gravity or special effects like Jitter together, they allow you to automatically create the motion effects that occur during a hurricane by simulating objects being blown about and eventually settle to the ground as well as fixed objects that vibrate in place. This could accomplish in seconds what could take days to animate using object placement and rotation techniques.

A major added benefit of Presenter 3D's plug-in capabilities is the ability to apply multiple animator effects to single objects or groups of objects. One or more plug-in animators represented by icons in the Attributes popup can be dragged to quickly and easily assign pre-programmed movements or effects to the appropriate object. The existing Flock animator plug-in, for example, can provide animators with a powerful tool for creating hard-to-do effects and offers third party developers with a great opportunity to create a combination of models and effects for use in multimedia productions, animated film and video, and video games. As an example of the application of multiple plug-ins, once a specific motion effect like a person walking, an animal running, or an object flying is defined as an animator plug-in, it can be used in conjunction with the existing Flock animator to simulate a group hiking up a trail, runners in the Boston marathon, planes flying by a buffalo stampede, or a swarm of bees. Coupled with the ease of assigning object specific and background sounds at the same time the motion is created, effects like the buffalo stampede, planes flying, and bees swarming are made even more dramatic. Plus is much easier and less expensive to sync sounds to motion at the same time in Presenter 3D than can be done with post production systems.

Consider what it would take to simulate the dinosaur stampede shown in the movie Jurassic Park for a game or animated story for a CD if you were using standard 3D animation effects. After modeling a single dinosaur, you would have to animate all the leg, body, and head motions for the entire run and then duplicate this effort for each additional dinosaur making sure that it did not bump into any of the other dinosaurs. This would be an extremely difficult and time consuming task even for several animators, since they would need to be concerned with the positions of the other running dinosaurs. With Presenter 3D's Animator Plug-In capabilities, you would first model the dinosaur and create a plug-in that produced the effect of a dinosaur running. You would then duplicate the single dinosaur model to create a group of dinosaurs and apply the Flocking, Spline Path, and Running Dinosaur animator plug-ins to the group. This could be accomplished by a single person in a matter of minutes.

For third party developers, the Presenter 3D Animator Plug-In Software Development Kit provides an opportunity to create libraries of models and associated effects that could be sold together for added value as well as just the effects alone. Using a basic four-legged animal running effect could be tailored for horses, deer, dogs and a variety of other animals and a flying effect could be tailored for eagles, bats, and mosquitoes and other flying birds and insects. Just as a human can walk, run, and jump, you would offer a variety of motion options to fit the entity in question. VIDI is looking for and is prepared to assist third party developers in bringing their plug-in products and models to market.