The Automatron Website is under construction and is somewhat incomplete. Some buttons do nothing.

Please check out the Automatron Forum.

   Automatron is a powerful new character animation tool for 3ds Max 8/9, designed and written by the creator of the animated movie “LOR”. Over the many years I have been working on “LOR”, I have created a huge collection of tools designed to make the character animation process less frustrating and more fun. Automatron is both a collection of all those tools and the next generation of tools that I will use to continue my work on “LOR”.
   Automatron is made for those of us who don’t want to spend a week making a complex character rig before we can start animating. Just open up Automatron, and merge in an Automatron character with 3 mouse clicks, or fit the rig to your character model, add it to the character library and start animating.
All the animation, snapshot poses and automated walking queues that you create for one character can be used on any other Automatron character. So, the longer you work with Automatron, the more future projects will benefit from your growing Automatron libraries.
   Automatron is written completely with Maxscript and is made entirely out of 3dsmax objects and controllers. That means there is no need to have the Automatron tool to open and view, edit or render a scene. No need to put Automatron on all your render machines or force a client to buy a plugin in order to share scene files.

Main Features:
1. A Procedural Walking System that will create hundreds of frames of complex animation in minutes. Ground detection and attachment for foot planting on multiple animated surface objects.
2. Walkatron, advanced walk cycle loop editor. Create a library of walk/run/stagger cycles to use in the Procedural Walking system.
3. Walkatron then hooks into a crowd system to allow you to create animation for hundreds of characters, all walking over your multiple animated terrain surfaces. Characters walk around your scene avoiding walls and each other, following paths and seeking objects, or just wander around without guidance.
4. FK/IK Blending for the Arms, Legs and Fingers.
5. Pre-built Multiple IK Blended Targets.
6. Snapshot Poses and play them back on in whole or in part on any Automatron Rig. An additional Snapshot Pose system for the Hands and Fingers.
7. Surface detection for IK finger tips. Quickly attach finger tips to a moving animated surface, or drag fingers across a moving surface with Caress.
8. Advanced Display Panel. Control the display of the Automatron Rig Elements for multiple rigs.
9. Built in character library. Want to add your Automatron character to your scene, just 3 clicks away. Add multiple copies of the same character to your scene with no hassles.
10. Online Help System. Have a look at all the features right here, as well as screen grab movies.