Cascadeur 2024.2 review: Automated tools that supercharge your character animation

Depending on what field you’re in, you might never have heard of Cascadeur. For the uninitiated, Cascadeur is a standalone 3D application that lets you create keyframe animation for characters.

It does this through a relatively intuitive interface and if you trace the software’s progression over the last few years, you can see that the process of creating character animation is becoming more straightforward.

Most of the recent development has centred around creating AI-assisted and physics tools that significantly speed up the animation process while still delivering high-quality and superior-quality results. The software works with .FBX, .DAE and .USD files making it easy to integrate into any animation workflow.

Now at version 2024.2, Cascadeur is stronger than ever. With new features including auto-physics character interaction, separation motion physics, and facial blendshapes, Cascadeur is more robust and feature-rich than it’s been since it launched in 2019. We’ll dive into some of the new features and see whether they’re worthy of any hype and how they compare to the likes of Maya.

Autophysics

New to the latest version of Cascadeur, Autophysics builds on the developer’s commitment to creating tools that automate as much of the animation process as possible. The tools use physics-based algorithms to analyse the animation that you have created before suggesting a physically accurate alternative.

I love this sort of feature. It’s basically like a spellchecker. It's basically saying, "You created this but what you probably meant to create was this." This feature enables animators to create a rough animation before using Cascadeur to finish it off. Obviously this will save a lot of time and energy, and in a lot of cases will result in a better output.

As with any automated solution, the tool will work best in the hands of gifted animators who know what they’re doing. Cascadeur isn’t able to produce the best results every single time and it’s important for the animator to pick up on that. Using it blindly won’t always serve the project but it’ll certainly save a lot of time in most situations.

The tool is extensive enough to provide a range of motion improvements, including compensation, secondary, and AM smoothness. I also love that Cascadeur allows animators to go back into their original animation and make changes before recalculating the automated result. This puts the control back in the hands of the artist and allows for a seamless and streamlined workflow.

One example that Cascadeur highlights in their release notes is being able to solve pendulum-like animations, such as a gymnast performing swings on a horizontal bar. The results are really impressive and demonstrate what the automatic tools are capable of. The fact that animators only have to create a rough and ‘jagged’ animation before letting Cascadeur generate all the secondary motion is a game changer for animators.

At the time of writing, this feature was only at alpha release. What they’ve managed to do at this stage is really impressive and, on its own, would make it worthy of an upgrade. I’m excited to see how Cascadeur builds upon this technology, streamlining the process and enabling artists to focus on storytelling.

Separation Motion Physics tool

This innovative tool makes complex physics-driven movements more realistic by enabling artists to adjust a character’s pose. It puts the control back in the hands of the animator, enabling them to fine-tune the position of their characters without having to affect the rest of the setup. Examples include repositioning the limbs or bending the body.

In an attempt for automation at all costs, it would be tempting for the Cascadeur developers to limit this level of interaction. Thankfully, they are aware that automation will only take you so far before becoming limiting to creativity. At the moment, they’ve generally got the balance absolutely spot on.

Blendshapes

It’s hard to believe that Blendshapes have only just made it into Cascadeur but that demonstrates that this animation software still has a long way to go. This type of tool makes it possible to create facial morphy targets for characters as well as full-body animation.

It's a good implementation but unfortunately, you can’t yet create Blendshapes within Cascadeur. This is rather limiting but I’ve no doubt that it’s only a matter of time before it’s made possible.

Should I try Cascadeur 2024.2?

If you’d like to try out the latest version of Cascadeur, then you can give the free edition a whirl. There are limitations, such as not being able to export your animation to other DCCs but it is a great option for trying out the workflow and some of the features. Unfortunately, the free version is not allowed to be used for commercial purposes.

If you’d like the pro version, then that’ll cost you $49/month or $399/year, although there is an indie subscription that only costs $99 per year.

You’ll also find unbaking for non-humanoid characters, performance improvements for long animations, as well as AutoPosing, Property Editor, and Linked Scenes Improvements. These smaller tweaks help to round up the update and make it feel worthy of an upgrade.