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EIAS 9 Animator Feature List

New Animator 9.0 Features

1. New 3D Import System.

The 3D import system has been re-designed to provide advanced options and model diagnostics for all imported formats. The importer will validate the geometry uncovering possible problems before you get to the rendering stage.

Custom presets can be created for each 3D format. Multiple 3D files can be added to a project in alphanumeric order with a single import operation. The import software for every 3D format import has been rewritten and support for new formats have been added.

1.1 Zbrush .GoZ files.

The complete GoZ file content (mesh with UVs, bump, displacement and normal map, vertices colors) is imported into EIAS. ZBrush plug-ins for EIAS can be installed from Animator's import dialog box.
1.2 Adobe .ai and .eps files

Animator now supports importing both outlines and surfaces from .ai and .eps files! Colors, compound paths and clipping masks are supported. The .ai or .eps file's structure is transformed into a group hierarchy in Animator. The precision is under your control using the import options.
1.3 Updated support for Alias WaveFront .obj and .mtl files

.obj files are now imported with UV coordinates, material attributes and textures from .mtl files. Watch the video tutorial
1.4 Updated support for LightWave models .lwo and scenes .lws

EIAS now supports the lwo2 model format with UV coordinates, materials and textures. EIAS can import entire LightWave version 5.6, 6.0 and 9.0 scene files, which supports the importation of Pixel Farm PFTrack™ 3d tracking.

2. Bullet Rigid body dynamics

2.1 Bullet Simulation

Bullet rigid body dynamics is integrated into Animator. The simulation is built into Animator's preview process. Watch the video tutorial
2.2 Bullet Forces

A new "Force" object has been written into Animator. You can add force objects to your projects and animate them in many ways to drive your simulation. Watch the video tutorial
2.3 Bullet Vehicles

Vehicle simulation is built into EIAS 9. The Vehicle plug-in automatically rigs the car model and allows you to simulate vehicle motion with a low-resoultion proxy of your car and render with your hero model.
2.4 Constraints and bones with Bullet

Constraints for the Bullet simulations are created using the tools in Animator that you are already familiar with. Basic constraints are created automatically using the group's Link/Joint information. Bones are treated as rigid bodies with volume and mass. Chains of bones are constrained automatically. Other kinds of effectors (boxes, crosses, etc.) can also be used as constraints.

3. Smart IBL (Image-Based Lighting) Presets

This new feature allows you to configure your lights, all environment textures, and settings rapidly, by choosing from a palette of lighting environments.

Standard .ibl files can be used. Additionally all EIAS-specific settings for environment and Global Illumination can be stored and loaded.

To simplify environment control all of the textures that are part of the preset (Camera Rotoscopes, World and GI maps) can be "linked" and rotated synchronously
3.1 New IBL palette. Using sIBL presets

There are many sIBL presets available on the web and now it's easy to use them with EIAS. Simply download an .ibl file and put it in the "EI IBL Presets Folder". They automatically appear in the new IBL palette.
3.2 Saving and Loading Environment and Light Settings

Saving your IBL presets is easy and, in addition to the lighting effects that are part of the IBL standard, also stores all EIAS-specific information: all texture options, all light settings, all GI settings, and all animated channels. It's like saving the lighting portion of your project and being able to reuse it over and over again.
3.3 New Environment Dialog

This new dialog holds all the options to browse the IBL preset files and folders. It is also used to control which lights are stored in the IBL preset. The dialog displays all of the environment textures in the project. It makes configuring environmental lighting simpler. Textures can be opened, added, configured, removed and replaced in a single dialog instead of switching between the Camera, Global Illumination, and World Info windows.
3.4 Synchronous Rotation for Environment Textures

All or some of the environment textures in your project can be "linked" by setting the synchronous rotation flag in the Texture Info window or in the textures' individual list boxes.. if you rotate one linked texture, then all of others are rotated as well.

4. Animator Preview

4.1 Textures

Now up to 8 diffuse textures (per object) can be displayed (shaded or decal) in Animator's View windows. The following texture options now can be previewed as well:
- Photoshop blend modes (such as Multiply, Overlay etc)
- Negative Z option
- Both multi-frame and multi-file textures are synchronized with your project's time line
Texturing is optimized for projects with a large number of textured objects while the quality of the textures as displayed is greatly improved. Watch the video tutorial
4.2 Material

The following material attributes now can be previewed exactly as they would be rendered.
- Diffuse Falloff
- Specular Dropoff
- Specular Diffuse Bias
- Specular Gloss
- Ambient (defined in World or by Ambient light(s) as well)
- Fog (all options)
- Luminance with Diffuse Bias and in mode "Shade"
- Transmission (including Edge control)
Watch the video tutorial

EIAS 9.1 - Faster and better Animator Preview

Mode	EIAS 9.0 - Nvidia 8800	EIAS 9.1 - Nvidia 8800	EIAS 9.0 - ATI Rad HD 2600 XT	EIAS 9.1 - ATI Rad HD 2600 XT
Extent	60 fps	60 fps	70 fps	70 fps
Point	32 fps	60 fps	35 fps	35 fps
Outline	3 fps	3 fps	2 fps	3 fps
Wireframe	9 fps	19 fps	8 fps	35 fps
Point S	28 fps	30 fps	35 fps	35 fps
Outline S	3 fps	3 fps	2 fps	3 fps
Wireframe S	9 fps	17 fps	8 fps	35 fps
Flat S	3 fps	30 fps	2 fps	2 fps
Gouraud S	3 fps	30 fps	5 fps	67 fps
Phong S	3 fps	15 fps	2 fps	5 fps

Note: results will vary depending on the complexity and settings in your projects. The table above using this sample scene illustrates that Animator v9.1 is significantly faster than v9.0 The improvements in v9.1 will be even more dramatic in projects with a large number of groups (with texture preview turned off).

5. Animator Performance

Animator has been re-architected for better performance. You will see significant speed improvements when saving and loading projects, editing, and writing control files for Camera. We will continue to improve Animator so that it can handle large, complex projects efficiently.

The following table shows progress

Operation	time in EIAS 8.0	time in EIAS 9.0
Load project (30K groups)	Can’t Load	1min 28secs
Save project (30K groups)	Can’t Load	1min 49secs
Load project (20K groups)	Can’t Load	56secs
Save project (20K groups)	Can’t Load	1min 13secs
Load project (10K groups)	50 secs	19secs
Save project (10K groups)	1min 03secs	36secs
Parent/Un-parent (10K groups)	4min 35secs	14secs
Deleting (5K groups)	30secs	8secs
Undo previous deleting (5K groups)	1min 16secs	6secs
Writing ccn (10K groups)	7secs per frame	0.5 secs per frame
Setting "lock" (10K groups)	4secs	real time

Note: results will vary depending on the complexity and settings in your projects. The table above illustrates that Animator v9 is significantly faster than v8. The improvements in v9 will be even more dramatic in projects with a large number of textured groups (with texture preview turned on).

6. Animator User Interface

Animator has several UI improvements to support new features and make using larger projects more efficient.

6.1 New Photon Maps UI

The photon maps UI has been completely redesigned to make setup easier and more intuitive. Simply specify the amount of photons and drag the "Map Control" slider. The rest is done for you automatically.
6.2 Redesigned Raytrace Shadow Settings

The new UI is more organized and will automatically notify you if a light requires dropoff and enable it for you if you choose.
6.3 New and Redesigned Texture Options

Checkbox options "World Texture" and "Disable UV" are removed. instead a new popup "Space" has been added with choices: UV, Model and World.
The functionality of the "Normalize" checkbox (Group Info window, Shading tab) has been improved to make texturing simpler for models that have UV coordinates with typical ranges [-0.5..0.5], [0..1], [-1..1].
Additionally, a new "Custom" Texture Alignment tool has been added - an easy way to map several textures into one UV space.
6.4 Automatic Search Paths

This new tab in the Preferences saves a lot of time when a project is moved from one computer to another or is being used on two or more computers that share the files on a network drive. Watch the video tutorial
6.5 Reveal in Finder (Windows Explorer)

This new choice in the Contextual menu navigates you to the folder on your disk that contains the selected item. For textures, models, plug-ins and shaders, their files are shown. For groups, the choice is "Reveal in model" and the model is shown.
6.6 Copy and Paste Project window names

Now users can copy and paste Project Window item names. You can highlight a group name, copy and paste it to another item.
6.7 Vert Cross batch conversion

Using this new option in Animator's Image Viewer, you can do still and batch Vertical Cross conversion for the new Environment animation option in Camera 9.
6.8 Vertex color conversion

Convert strength maps into vertex color. This feature can be used to make "reactive color" masks for shaders that are stored in your model files.
6.9 More Plug-ins added to host

- EXR2Mesh
- MDD
- Mouse Tracker