Press Release

Craft Animations announces today that NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. (NBGI) has used Craft Director Studio to generate the animated sequences in NBGI’s newly-released TEKKEN™6. With over 2.5 million units on the market, users will enjoy the vehicle and camera animations in the scenario campaign mode of the game which have been created using Craft Director Studio.

NBGI created much of the film material using Craft Director Studio – including the animation of the main-character’s motorcycle, large numbers of cars, helicopters and more.

Game developers find Craft Director Studio highly valuable for creating high-end animation for vignettes, cut-scenes and other in-game animation. Craft Director Studio simulates the vehicle and camera behavior directly inside Autodesk’s 3ds Max®, Maya®, Softimage® or Maxon’s CINEMA 4D viewport adding a human touch and superior quality to the animation.

Shinichirou Yoda, Assistant Manager, Computer Graphic Motion Department, Contents Production Group of NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. explains that the methods for generating motion which they have used in the past have had restrictions. One example is motion capture; it is difficult to use motion capture when the scale of the scene constantly changes. For instance, a camera enters into the car that is driving recklessly at high speeds. Or think of the scene where a character enters from far-off on a motorcycle, approaches the camera, and then leaves again. Mr Shinichirou explains that his team was given a greater power of persuasion with the greater degree of freedom that CDS offered. Not only would the alternatives have meant they would have to collect a prohibitive amount of data, but they would have been restricted in their creative process, not being able to create all the affects they had wanted.

Mr Shinishriou adds; “CDT is the one tool which freed us from such restrictions. The animation environment based on the simulation in 3D space, automatic generation and being able to edit animation interactively uncovered a very big possibility for next-gen motion creation environment“.

Craft Director Studio includes:

Craft Camera Tools which provide users with real-time camera control with professional-quality cinematic results.
Craft Vehicle Tools which allow artists to create the most realistic and accurate simulations for in-motion vehicles.
Craft Accessory Tools which add the finishing touches to action-packed productions by simulating and animating props such as missiles, trailers, cog wheels and other moving parts.

“NBGI was able to create vast volumes of animated content in a very short amount of time. We were very happy to see that production speeds and volumes was verified in this project, and we are happy to have been a part of TEKKEN6.” said Craft Animations’ co-founder and head of R&D Luigi Tramontana.