Mimic Offers Intuitive Control, Simulation, Programming, and Control of 6-axis, Industrial Robots Within Maya.
I recently received a note from John Nierras who is the Creative Director for @ PI (Perfect Infinitives). Nierras effused about a new Maya tool called Mimic developed by Autodesk Robotics Labs at Pier 9. Mimic is a free and open-source plugin for Maya that lets you take control of industrial 6-axis robots, by merely animating the target element as you usually would within Maya.
John Nierras and a team had the opportunity to work with Mimic for a recent campaign for Los Javis. They animated a camera move for a Kuka Robot Arm using Maya. “There’s a new plugin for Autodesk Maya in town that can animate real industrial robots! It’s called Mimic (mimicformaya.com). And the cool thing is that it’s done within the Autodesk Robotics Lab. Also, the awesome part of this plugin is that it’s Open Source!” Nierras writes. “For film and television, and most smaller film studios, it’s hard to get into robotics because there’s really no software out there that is affordable. By having this open-sourced, more people can contribute and expand the capabilities. ”
Nierras also mentions that without the Autodesk Mimic team, it would be unrealistic to justify having a robot in-studio. “Again, just wanted a shout out to the people who made this. Without their team, it’s hard to justify a bot in our studio today.”
Nierras noted that the Mimic team deserves more recognition for the initiative, and I agreed. “For smaller studios, having an open-source plug-in is a great solution. And the community is pretty awesome. Autodesk and other roboticists out there are helping to make the plugin better every day!”
