Thursday, November 21st, 2024Posted by Jim ThackerCheck out Blender crowd animation add-on Population 2html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Blender tools developer Bproduction has released Population 2, the latest version of its promising lightweight Blender crowd animation system.The add-on makes it possible to quickly add background crowds to Blender scenes for animation or visualization work, and comes with sets of stock 3D characters and animations.New features in Population 2 include the option to paint crowd characters into the scene, and new Group and On Vertices modes for distributing characters across surfaces.A promising lightweight tool for adding animated crowds to Blender scenesFirst released last year, Population is a lightweight crowd animation add-on for Blender.It makes it possible to add animated crowds to Blender scenes simply by drawing out paths for them to walk along, or defining areas in which they should stand.A Stadium mode adds seated or standing crowds to stadium shots.The add-on comes with a set of 48 photoscanned 3D characters and 55 stock animations, including walk, run, sports and idle motions, recorded by French mocap studio SolidAnim.The characters mostly white, to judge from the demo videos come with up to 8K PBR texture maps, and a shader-based system for creating color variations for clothing.Population 2: new Paint mode and updates to Follow Curve and Stadium modesTo that, Population 2 adds the option to paint characters into a scene directly.New Group and On Vertices modes provide alternative ways to distribute crowd characters throughout regions of a scene, with more realistically uneven spacing.The existing Follow Curve mode has been extended, with the option to have characters walk in both directions along a path, and to adjust the width of the path.Stadium mode now provides options to create empty seats within a stadium crowd, and to have the crowd characters turn to follow a look-at target. Price and system requirementsPopulation 2 is compatible with Blender 3.5+. A commercial Pro license costs $130; a 10-seat Studio license costs $282.There is also a non-commercial Lite license, which costs $41.90, and provides access to 15 of the 3D characters, and 20 of the stock animations.Read more about Population 2 on Blender MarketHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Latest NewsCheck out Blender crowd animation add-on Population 2Promising lightweight add-on for creating 3D crowds for animation or visualization now lets you paint crowd characters into the scene.Thursday, November 21st, 2024Download SideFX's free Project Greylight toolkit for HoudiniFree tools help artists and studios set up collaborative USD-based workflows without the need for a custom production pipeline.Thursday, November 21st, 2024Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Holiday 2024 deals for CG artistsUpdated 21 November: Discover over 60 seasonal offers on CG tools and hardware, now including Affinity, JangaFX and Modeler for HoudiniWednesday, November 20th, 2024Adobe releases Photoshop 26.1Update to the image editing and digital painting app makes it possible to edit color gradients from the contextual task bar.Wednesday, November 20th, 2024Chaos ships Corona 12 Update 1 for 3ds Max and Cinema 4DArchitectural renderer gets new live link to Chaos Vantage, better volumetric caustics, and new AI-based render upscaling system.Wednesday, November 20th, 20245 key features in Blender 4.3Now available: read our pick of the new features in the open-source 3D software, from Grease Pencil 3 to updates to Eevee and Cycles.Tuesday, November 19th, 2024More NewsBiteTheBytes releases World Creator 2024.3Free tool: Reallusion's Blender Auto Setup pluginDownload VFX Assets' free 2D Cloud Textures PackCreate perfect topology for animated charactersEphere releases Ornatrix 3 for Cinema 4DMaxon releases Red Giant 2025.2 and Universe 2025.1Nekki releases Cascadeur MobileUnreal Engine 5.5: discover 10 key features for CG artistsBlackmagic Design releases Fusion Studio 19.1Blackmagic Design releases DaVinci Resolve 19.1Get the Blender Studio's free Brushstroke Tools for BlenderFoundry releases Mari 7.1 in betaOlder Posts