Just got an email from Mixamo with some pretty cool information. Basically Mixamo’s web client was based around Unity player, and Google killed off Unity player, so they had to port to a pure WebGL version, Mixamo 2. As part of this transition they are now offering free Autorigs to Mixamo Fuse customers. I am a big fan of Mixamo Fuse, I covered it in some detail in this post or in this video. On of the major features of Fuse is it came with two free auto rigs a week, with additional rigs costing 50$. Now they are completely free.
To the non-artists amongst us, a rig is the skeletal underpinnings of a 3D model that enable you to manipulate it using a network of bones. Mixamo auto rig does the generating of this skeleton for you, and it does a pretty good job of it too.
Details of the release, most relevant portion in red:
Celebrating Mixamo 2.0 with Free Fuse Auto-Rigs
May 13, 2015 at 6:30 AM
Today’s the day! This marks the full transition to Mixamo 2.0. This new interface is designed to help you:
Save time with the 10x faster, 100% plugin free 3D viewer
Customize content by creating your own animation packs
Stay organized by finding assets, editing animations and Auto-Rigging all in one place
Quickly get assets in the game engine with new bulk download and export settings
The transition that started in February is now complete, and although we are still making tweaks and optimizations based on your feedback, from here on out the Mixamo Store will be the hub for our 3D animation software.
To celebrate the change, we are announcing that all Fuse characters Auto-rigged on Mixamo can now be downloaded for free. Read on after the jump for more information. Or, go directly to the Mixamo Store to browse our 3D animations and characters.
Free Auto-Rigging for Fuse Characters
As of today, instead of charging $50 per Auto-Rig for a Fuse character, there will be no charge at download for an Auto-Rigged Fuse character. This is true for any Fuse user, regardless of whether or not you have a Mixamo plan, and regardless of whether you are using Fuse or Fuse Basic. And animations on a Fuse character will still be charged per animation per character.
But why? We did this to reduce any friction around understanding the value of Fuse as part of the Mixamo eco-system. We see the 3D character creator as the ideal beginning of the pipeline for bringing quality animated characters into a game project quickly. By starting with Fuse, game developers at any level – hobbyists, indie, AAA – only need to build the character that they want, then upload to Mixamo to apply animations. The functionality works the same as before, but by not charging for Auto-Rigged Fuse characters, we are opening up the pipeline to far more users.
Celebrating a full transition
Mixamo 2.0 is now here to stay and the features are geared to get you 3D animation assets, faster than ever.
Faster and plugin-free viewer
Viewing 3D content on Mixamo is now a brighter, sharper, faster, 100% plugin free experience. We built the Mixamo Store on a brand new framework utilizing WebGL technology, which renders 3D and 2D graphics inside any modern web browser.
In the past, users had to install the Unity Web Player plugin to view content on Mixamo’s original site. But plugins are annoying to install, difficult to constantly update, and modern web browsers like Chrome have stopped supporting older plugin architectures. That’s why we made the transition away from the plugin – to make sure that all Mixamo visitors can see a faster, higher-fidelity image without needing to install a single thing. If you want more details on this new technology, check out this blog post authored by our Director of Engineering, Jeremy Biddle.
Customizable animation packs
Mixamo 2.0 features twenty two curated animation packs, making it easy to grab complete sets of animations that work together immediately, and our animation collection is always growing. You can modify your pack’s content so that it includes only what works for your project. Feel free to add animations that are not in the original pack, or whittle down the animation content to just what you need. Because the viewer is now side-by-side with your search results, you can see right away what will work with your existing pack and what won’t.
We’ve added seventeen new animation packs since the launch of Mixamo 2.0 in February 2015, and our Animation Director plans to post new packs every month. We are focusing on a wide range of genres like Combat, Fantasy and Locomotion, as well as offering options for Pro and Lite versions to fit your needed level of animation complexity. Here’s a list of the current packs, and you can check out the Featured page to view the most recent additions.
Mixamo Animation Packs
Free Test Animations
Male Locomotion
Female Locomotion
Gestures
Creature
Pro Melee Axe
Lite Longbow
- Longbow
Longbow Aiming
Pro Longbow
Action Adventure
Lite Sword and Shield
Pro Sword and Shield
Basic Shooter
Lite Rifle
Pro Rifle
Scary Zombie
Not So Scary Zombie
Lite Magic
Magic Spell
Magic Locomotion
Pro Magic
Searchable and organized assetsFind what you need faster than before with improved search capabilities. You can still search for any asset by using the search field or narrowing down results with the search parameters. The difference now is that results will appear much more quickly than before.
In Mixamo 2.0 we’ve also built in the ability to favorite items, so that you can earmark assets for easy reviewing later. You can also use this feature to see the popularity of a certain asset – that way, when you are deciding between animations, you have an indicator of which one wins the heart of more users. And, just like the original Mixamo site, you are able to store any asset that you have been working on. Now you can leverage the beautiful new viewer to see your purchased and in-progress items to make sure you get exactly what you want before downloading. Last but not least, we’ve made it possible to delete assets from your account so that you can do a spring cleaning any time you want.
Bulk downloading and new export settings
The entire export process is streamlined in Mixamo 2.0. Bulk downloading with animation packs will help you get what you need and get going. Just head to the My Assets section, select the assets you want, and hit Queue Download. Here you can also take advantage of the nifty export settings and apply them across all the downloads selected to save boatloads of time. No more navigating between different web pages, no more need to download animations one by one. The Mixamo Store checks you out and keeps all of your work in one place.
Worth the wait
Mixamo 2.0 has been in beta since the end of February, and the final transition today comes after we made sure that all Mixamo user account functionality remains the same in the new interface.
The migration period allowed us to do a responsible transition through iterative cycles of development, testing, gathering feedback, and improvement tweaks. That continued iteration won’t end with the full transition, and your feedback is just as important now as it was before. Please share your thoughts with us in the Mixamo Community forum.
We also have this swell survey which takes only 2 minutes to complete.
Best Mixamo yet
So everybody, as we bid a fond farewell to Mixamo’s original interface, it feels great to look back and realize that when the site was first launched in 2008, we were then and are still now the only online shop for animations that can automatically retarget to your 3D characters. As great as it feels to look back in pride, it feels even better to look forward to what is now possible.
This is just an exciting first step. Expect more great things to come.
m/
