Rumba 1.0 – new animation tool

Mercenaries Engineering has announced it is working on Rumba 1.0, a new standalone 3D animation tool that aims to modernise and speed up workflows. Some of the features include the ability to pose characters with selection-less manipulators on the geometry, dedicated fingers and hands manipulators, and transparent handling of IK/FK and FK/IK.

Workflows include true non-destructive animation layers and easy-to-use constraint layers, the ability to keep each layer’s timing visible and easily mix and merge animations. Other features include drag  and drop keyframes plus the ability to copy/paste over time, layers, controllers or characters.

According to the developers, Rumba offers a large selection of tools professionals would expect from modern software such as a professional curve editor, onion skinning, a poses and clips library, a multi-frame pose edition and motion trails.

Existing Maya rigs are supported, with the ability to add Rumba specific features. The software isn’t out yet, but interested artists can register on the software’s website to join a closed beta. To see it in action, watch a video on YouTube.