Q: What is Animator's PoseTool?

A: Animator's Posetool or PoseTool for short is a 3dsMax utility plugin inspired by Steve Johnson's script anipose. PoseTool's purpose is to improve the character animation in Max. It gives you a unique combination of features that helps you bring your characters to life. PoseTool is not a complicated character animation system like Ch.Studio or CAT. It works with your own objects. PoseTool is simple and offers you a creativity and big pleasure of animating.

Q: Is PoseTool designed for character animation only?

A: Certainly not, with it you can animate whatever objects you want.You can use PoseTool to animate even one single object.

Q: How it works?

A: PoseTool manages your objects by mixing poses created by you. It transforms the objects by position, rotation and scale. To create a key on those transformations you must turn on the autokey (fig). If the pose contains rotation only, when you execute that pose, rotation key will be created.

Q: Does PoseTool create any additional objects like Spacewarps do?

A: No. PoseTool doesn't create any geometry, helpers or controllers.

The poses can be manipulated only in PoseTool's work window named Toolbox.

Q: Can we animate an object by our selves after we used PoseTool ?

A: Of course, all the things that PoseTool does is to turn, move or scale your object just like you do.

The keys created by using PoseTool are ordinary keys.You can always add, delete or move them in track view.

Q: What are the advantages of using PoseTool ?

A: A lot.

*You can create as many poses and groups as you want for the entire Character.Groups like legs, arms, spine, neck or fingers for example. You can mix them together or one by one with all features easier than you can imagine.

*If you have poses created for the left arm for example, you can use those poses for the right one, or for other alternative objects.

PoseTool is excellent to create facial animation and lypsync.

* There is two levels of control over the execution of the poses. absolute/relative, limited/unlimited.

* You can switch on and off any of the three transformations (position/rotation/scale) By this way, 3dsMax generates key only for the transformation that is switched on.

* PoseTool manages the objects, no matter if they're visible in viewport or are hidden. Now you have the opportunity to animate your character without the bone system or any other obstructive object to stand in your way. Just you, PoseTool and your skinned character.