Mixamo () is a
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for th ...
technology company. Based in San Francisco, the company develops and sells web-based services for
3D character animation. Mixamo's technologies use
machine learning
Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence.
Machine ...
methods to automate the steps of the character animation process, including
3D modeling
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of any surface of an object (inanimate or living) in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, an ...
to rigging and
3D animation
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...
.
Mixamo is spun-off of
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
and has raised over $11 million from investors
Granite Ventures
Granite Ventures is a venture capital firm with offices in San Francisco, California. Granite's predecessor H&Q Venture Associates, founded in 1992, was the venture capital investment arm of Hambrecht & Quist, a leading technology oriented inve ...
, Keynote Ventures,
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
and
AMD Ventures.
Mixamo was acquired by
Adobe Systems
Adobe Inc. ( ), originally called Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American multinational computer software company incorporated in Delaware
and headquartered in San Jose, California. It has historically specialized in software for the crea ...
in 2015.
History
Mixamo was founded in 2008 by Stefano Corazza and Nazim Kareemi as a spin-off of Stanford University's Biomotion Lab,
and started out as a cloud-based service offering animations and automatic character rigging. It launched its first online animation service in 2009. In 2010, Mixamo worked with Evolver to provide characters to customers.[ Later ]Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered ...
acquired Evolver and made it proprietary, but Mixamo had already begun work on its own character creation service.[
Mixamo released its automatic rigging service in 2011. That was followed by the launch of its real-time facial animation product, Face Plus, in 2013,] and the official launch of its Fuse 3D character creator software in March 2014. In August 2014, Mixamo launched a new pricing structure.
Mixamo was acquired by Adobe Systems
Adobe Inc. ( ), originally called Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American multinational computer software company incorporated in Delaware
and headquartered in San Jose, California. It has historically specialized in software for the crea ...
on June 1, 2015.
Fuse
In March 2014, Mixamo officially launched Fuse Character Creator
Adobe Fuse CC (formerly Fuse Character Creator) is a discontinued 3D computer graphics software developed by Mixamo that enables users to create 3D characters. Its main novelty is the ability to import and integrate user-generated content into the ...
at Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tutori ...
.[ Fuse stems out of the research done by Siddhartha Chaudhuri which originated within Vladlen Koltun's research group at Stanford and Substance technology from Allegorithmic.] An early version of the service had been released in November 2013.
It allows users to create a 3D character by assembling customizable body parts, clothing and textures together. Those characters can then be exported into other 3D model
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of any surface of an object (inanimate or living) in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, an ...
software packages or game engine
A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...
.[
In March 2014, Mixamo launched Fuse 1.0 on Steam with the ability of importing and integrating user generated content in the character creation system.] Fuse was updated to allow the importation and editing of character models generated by Microsoft's Kinect 2.0 in August of that year.
Development of Fuse was discontinued in September 2019. On September 13, 2020, the program was removed from the Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe Creative Cloud is a set of applications and services from Adobe Inc. that gives subscribers access to a collection of software used for graphic design, video editing, web development, photography, along with a set of mobile applications a ...
and is no longer available for download from Adobe. Version 1.3 is still available for download on the Steam Marketplace.
Rigging service
This service has been discontinued for keeping custom 3D models and models uploaded via fuse CC on Adobe's servers. You can still upload custom 3D model to the online auto rigging service and rig them, but they won't be kept.
Mixamo also provides an online, automatic model rigging service known as the Auto-Rigger, which was the industry's first online rigging service. The AutoRigger applies machine learning to understand where the limbs of a 3D model are and to insert a "skeleton", or rig, into the 3D model as well as calculating the skinning weights. The service can take up to 2 minutes.
3D Character Animation
Mixamo's online services include an animation store featuring downloadable 3D models and animation sequences. The animations were created at Mixamo using motion capture
Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...
and cleaned up by key frame animators. All its animations work with characters created in Fuse and/or rigged with Mixamo's AutoRigger.
Real-time facial animation
August 2013, Mixamo released Face Plus, a game development tool
A game development tool is a specialized software application that assists or facilitates the making of a video game. Some tasks handled by tools include the conversion of assets (such as 3D models, textures, etc.) into formats required by the ga ...
that allows users to record facial animation
Computer facial animation is primarily an area of computer graphics that encapsulates methods and techniques for generating and animating images or models of a character face. The character can be a human, a humanoid, an animal, a legendary creatu ...
data of themselves using a standard webcam and apply the animation to a character inside the Unity
Unity may refer to:
Buildings
* Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building
* Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper
* Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England
* Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...
game engine
A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...
in real-time.[ Face Plus was briefly included in the keynote presentation at the Unite conference in Vancouver. The technology was developed in collaboration with ]AMD
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactur ...
.[ and uses ]GPU
A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobil ...
acceleration.
The animated short "Unplugged" was created using Face Plus technology and as of April 2014 has won several awards.
Face Plus has been discontinued and according to a September 2017 Adobe Forum post by Adobe staff JMathews, no further work on the product was being contemplated at that time.
References
External links
"Mixamo’s Facial Expression Capturing Technology Helps Indie Developers Speed Up Character Animation"
from Techcrunch
TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare.
In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately ...
Official site
Unplugged – Official site
{{Adobe Inc.
Entertainment software
Software companies based in California
Animation software
Stanford University
American companies established in 2008
Companies based in San Francisco
2008 establishments in California
Software companies established in 2008
2015 mergers and acquisitions
Adobe Inc.