Vancouver, Washington (February 25, 2002) - Since 1995, Hash Inc has been pursuing the goal of telling stories in real-time on the internet. Throughout these years we have researched many existing and upcoming technologies. Each has fallen short of truly achieving our goal. Since Hash Inc.’s software has always been at the leading edge of character animation, we found it frustrating to try to make ourselves backward compatible with these available archaic and outdated solutions.

After many meetings and conversations with multiple companies (including becoming an alliance partner with the Intel/Macromedia Shockwave 3D program as well as the MetaCreation/ Viewpoint Experience Technology program), we chose to embrace a small company in the Holland called ArcticPigs . There was absolutely no comparison between their solution and the existing ones - the ArcticPigs Web Viewer is exactly what we were looking for, and here are the reasons why we chose to fully support them:

1) Integration
The ArcticPigs Web Viewer was designed for Animation:Master specifically. It supports most of the amazing animation and spline-based features found in Animation:Master.

2) Patch Technology
This is the most critical area the competition has ignored - they have settled for polygons. The primary difference between patches and polygons is that a patch is a higher-order surface defined by mathematical curves, whereas a polygon is composed of straight lines. Imagine defining a character with a few simple curves versus tens of thousands of little triangles. It is very difficult to use polygons for smooth organic models such as characters, and polygons have a resolution dependency problem, (as the camera gets closer to a polygon model, the crude polygon edges become more and more apparent).

3) Bandwidth
Since bandwidth limitation is a major factor limiting the streaming of real-time content on the internet, it is very important that few patches stream much faster than thousands of polygons. Not only are the patch models more compact with better resolution, but the actions they perform, and the texture anchoring they use are similarly compact.

4) Scalability
There are two kinds of scalable technologies: models constructed of patches that can be scaled upwards to infinity, and those described with polygons that can only be scaled downwards. (What other solutions do is stream what they call “progressive meshes”. A progressive mesh is a HUGE polygon model. Competitors like to call this a scaleable technology, meaning the model can take on different resolutions based on the speed and frame rate of the end-user’s computer. The model can never look any better than the largest description of polygons streamed regardless of the system that will render it. Patches are the correct solution!)

5) Constraints
Most real-time 3D systems only support skeletal motion, (vertices driven by bones inserted into a model). Skeletal actions are canned and have to be streamed, but Animation:Master also uses constraints to take skeletal motion into the next generation. The utility of constraints is invaluable: characters can interact with each other and their surroundings on the fly! Constraint rigs can automatically maintain the character’s center of gravity, track their eyes, or wag their tail. Constraint motion does not have to be streamed!

6) Poses
Vertex motion: lip shapes, eye blinks, etc. can greatly enhance your animation, but it is impractical because it is extremely large to stream. Animation:Master has solved this by creating poses, (i.e. “smile”, “blink”), stored as part of the model, where a single control moves all of the vertexes required, triggering and blending the poses as needed. Thus, once the model is on the client’s system, new motion needs only to stream a single, tiny control. For instance, on a particular frame of the animation, controls can make the character’s eyes blink 75% while the mouth is 50% angry. Poses also allow reusability amongst characters, so one motion file describing a character how to sing, “God Bless America” can be applied on a whole choir and all could sing together.

7) Smartskin
Smartskin is used to create vertex motion that is driven by the skeletal rotation of any bone. This is great for automatic bulging biceps, as well as shoulders and hips that look great at any extreme. Smartskin is defined once by the animator, and stored as part of the model. During skeletal motion, the smartskin vertices are blended into incredible looking joints and expressions.

8) Longevity
The resolution will never outdate. Your models will be displayed on the client’s system as best as physically possible forever. As system clock speeds and video card rates increase, nothing about the data has to be changed; yet the viewing quality will be completely enhanced, with the upper limit being photo-realism.

The ArcticPigs solution is based on a Rendering Technology created at Hash, Inc. The model is compressed very small and streamed as patches. Since video cards don’t directly support patches in hardware, at viewing time the patch is tessellated into the correct number of polygons for the best display on the video card. This tessellation is extremely quick and intelligent: the amount of polygons created from each patch is directly controlled by the desired frame rate, the system speed, and the scale of the patch on the screen. Thus if a character is standing far away from the camera, it will be represented by just a few polygons, but if it walked forward and put its face right in front of the camera, the face will look perfect, being displayed with thousands of on-the-fly created polygons that never had to be streamed!

The list above is just a small subset of unique features offered by the ArcticPig’s 3D Web Viewer that make it far superior to any other solution for character animation play-back on the internet. Also included are: wavelet compression, 3D sound, MP3 playback and syncing, multi-texture support, a complete scripting language, and export straight from Animation:Master onto your own web page!

The web address is www.arcticpigs.com, and the plug-in works with Animation:Master V8.5. Hash Inc will be showcasing examples, and hosting a contest to demonstrate the technology very soon.

Historically, Hash Inc. has provided the cutting edge features, interface, and sophistication needed by aspiring computer animators to tell their stories. Animation:Master exclusive patch technology has been a mainstay in the character animation community, recognized for its unique blend of technology and implementation. Hash Inc. continues to lead in the areas of skin, decals, reusable character motions, and cross platform compatibility.

Animation:Master is designed and marketed as an entry level priced character animation program with the most advanced professional features. Hash Inc.’s philosophy is to build a tool set that assists animators in storytelling. Animation:Master is cross platform compatible with Windows , NT and PowerMac.

Historically, Hash Inc. has provided the cutting edge features, interface, and sophistication needed by aspiring computer animators to tell their stories. Animation:Master exclusive patch technology has been a mainstay in the character animation community, recognized for its unique blend of technology and implementation. Hash Inc. continues to lead in the areas of skin, decals, reusable character motions, and cross platform compatibility.

Animation:Master has established itself as a multi-platform standard for creating organic, true 3D patch based objects and characters. And channel-based motions give users the large degree of animation control that's required for quality character animation, eliminating the problems associated with polygonal systems.

Hash, Inc., founded by Martin Hash, has been marketing software tools for 3D-character animation since early 1987. The company continues to design and build affordable software tools for artists and animators for use in independent and commercial production. Animation Master is available for Windows98®, WindowsME®, WindowsNT ®, Windows2000 ®, WindowsXP ®, and Power Macintosh ® platforms.

Animation:Master is a trademark of Hash, Inc., Power Macintosh is a registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Windows is a registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

Enginecopyright Jeff "TinCan" Canton.