Cascadeur 2023.2 Brings Audio & USD Support

Nekki has released Cascadeur 2023.2, the latest update for the physics-based animation software.

The new version's most exciting new feature is audio support. You can now upload audio files in the .wav, .mp3, .wma, .flac, .aac, and .m4a formats, and the track will be played when you start the animation.

The Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD) keeps spreading across all kinds of software, and Cascadeur is also on board. You can import or export scenes and animations in USD format. It is still an experimental feature, so it might not always work the way it's supposed to.

Additionally, Cascadeur 2023.2 brings multiple improvements to existing tools, including the ability to attach multiple constraints to a scene object and trajectories that can be rendered in a new Relative to pivot mode. Moreover, the Quick Rigging Tool now supports multiple Twist Bones per Joint.

Nekki also improved AutoPosing, a tool that predicts the pose that you want to make and sets it up automatically, and the visualization of AutoPhysics Center of Mass by selection. The video motion capture now works five times faster, and the resulting animation has better quality.

Other changes include:

• Graph Editor now supports integer and boolean values.
• Physical parameters are now visible in the Graph Editor and can be interacted with.
• Improved Python support (switched to Python 3.11).
• Improvements to interpolation on a sphere.
• Added ‘back angle’ parameter to AutoPosing. This parameter defines the angle at which the character’s back changes direction forward or backward.
• Added an option to change the total mass of the character.
• Also added an option to change the character’s mass in the Rig Mode.
• Added fields to Quick Rigging Tool indicating twist strength and axis.
• Added scrollbar to the Splash Window.
• ‘Trajectory turn off’ has been made an enable/disable function.
• Visualization of AutoPhysics Center of Mass by selection.
• Keyframes can now be added to every open Animation Track at once (by using the Ctrl + F hotkey).
• The total number of frames is now shown on the Timeline.
• Added additional functionality with the Shift hotkey for Track Stretching Mode. When stretching/compressing an interval while holding Shift, the interval does not turn "green".

Cascadeur 2023.2 is free with limitations. Pro licenses cost $300/year, while Business subscriptions are $1,000/year.

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