The Plug-in Software Development Kit (SDK) allows programmers and 3D users with programming skills to develop their own animator plug-in modules to produce special motion effects that obey the laws of physics or produce special object effects. Custom animators can make the animation process easier by automatically controlling object parameters such as rotation, scale, position, 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.

For third party developers, the 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. Schools can use this kit to provide an interesting and valuable learning experience and create instructional tools for demonstrating physics laws and biological processes. 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.

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 the 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.

To get more information and to download the VIDI Presenter 3D Animator Toolkit, go to the Plug-in Development Area on the VIDI User Repository.

This 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. To help get plug-in animator developers started,a starter kit with source code for a shell plug-in module is included. This "starter" module allows you to immediately start coding the module. The kit provides: