Stage automation is a growing industry that plays an important role in live entertainment events from music shows to Cirque du Soleil. What may come as a surprise is that thanks to a plug-in from Stage Technologies 3ds Max is playing an increasingly important role in designing, simulating, and visualizing automation for live events.
Stage Technologies is an Australian company specializing in live event automation, they sell a number products for managing and controlling numerous types of live event automations. Among their products is a 3ds Max plug-in called Sculptor Animation Toolkit. Sculptor toolkit turns 3ds Max into a tool for designing and preview automation and to receive feedback on what movements are impossible or dangerous. Once ready Sculptor Toolkit data can be sent directly from 3ds Max to the eChameleon automation software.
As an example Sculptor Toolkit can be used to define a trolley that travels along a track, add a revolving ring hanging from it, then add some winches below the revolving ring as linear axes; these winches might then act as pickups in a larger bridled system. Flight paths, either drawn or sourced from recorded joystick data can be imported and supplementary feedback is provided to the operator when refining these paths, ensuring the flown move will run safely.
The following video shows Sculptor Toolkit in action.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3XW2Pq8LxQ[/video]
3ds Max and the Sculptor Toolkit have been used together to design and visualize live event productions from RadioHead to the Pan-American games opening ceremony to animating a giant robotic Gorilla for an upcoming musical about King Kong.
[video]http://vimeo.com/57498670[/video]
For more information on Sculptor Animation Toolkit see http://www.stagetech.com/press/sculptor-animation-toolkit.
