Cascadeur

What is Cascadeur?

Cascadeur is a standalone 3D keyframe animation software for humanoids or other characters. It supports creating keyframe animation and cleaning up or editing imported animations, with AI-assisted and physics-based tools to help you adjust motion while retaining control.

The software is designed for workflows that involve rigs, posing, and animation cleanup—such as turning baked animation back into editable keyframes, improving physical plausibility, and refining secondary motion.

Key Features

• Standalone 3D keyframe animation: Create keyframe animation and also clean up/edit animations you import.
• AI-assisted posing (AutoPosing): Use neural-network-assisted controls to place poses by adjusting control points while the rest of the body is positioned automatically.
• Physics-guided motion (AutoPhysics): Generate a suggested animation displayed on a green double of your character, aiming for more realistic, natural motion with minimal alteration.
• Edit baked animation (Animation Unbaking): Convert “baked” animations (where each frame is effectively keyframe data) into editable keyframe animation by automatically selecting keyframes and interpolation intervals.
• Quick rigging (Quick Rigging Tool): Drag-and-drop joints to generate rigs automatically, including one-click rigging for standard skeletons.
• Secondary motion controls: Use sliders to add or refine secondary motion such as shaking, bouncing, and overlapping body parts for more lifelike results (useful for idles and action moves).
• Hand animation tooling: Intelligent AutoPosing controllers for fingers to speed up animating hand behavior and gestures.
• Video-to-animation workflow: Use Video Mocap along with Animation Unbaking and Fulcrum Motion Cleaning to clean up and edit motion for higher-quality results.
• Retargeting by copy/paste: Transfer animations between humanoid characters with different proportions using copy/paste retargeting (described as two clicks).
• Environment interaction approach: Designed to make accurate body mechanics easier to achieve when animating and editing motion.

How to Use Cascadeur

1. Start a project with your character: Import a character or animation as needed using supported formats (FBX, DAE, USD).
2. Rig or verify the rig: Use the Quick Rigging Tool by dragging and dropping joints, or apply one-click rigging for supported standard skeletons.
3. Pose with AI: Adjust control points in AutoPosing to quickly reach natural-looking poses.
4. Refine motion: Use AutoPhysics to guide physical/natural motion, then adjust secondary motion with the provided sliders.
5. Clean up and edit existing motion (optional): If you have baked or imperfect animation, use Animation Unbaking and related cleaning tools to make the motion editable.

Use Cases

• Clean and edit mocap data for humanoids: Import motion, unbake it into editable keyframes, and use physics/AI tools to refine physical plausibility.
• Speed up keyframe posing: Block out poses by moving a small set of control points and let AutoPosing handle the rest of the body for faster iteration.
• Improve hand gestures: Use finger-oriented AutoPosing controllers to refine hand behavior without manually animating every detail.
• Add believable idle/action motion: Apply secondary motion sliders to create subtle shake, bounce, or overlap effects for idles and action sequences.
• Retarget animation between characters: Copy/paste retarget humanoid animations to characters with different proportions while working through a similar humanoid workflow.
• Use video mocap to generate usable animation: Combine Video Mocap with Animation Unbaking and motion cleaning tools to improve the quality of the resulting animation.

FAQ

What character types does Cascadeur support?

Cascadeur is described as supporting humanoids and also “other characters,” with a focus on humanoid animation workflows.

Can I edit animations I import into Cascadeur?

Yes. The software can create keyframe animation and also clean up and edit imported animations.

Does Cascadeur work with industry-standard file formats?

Cascadeur supports .FBX, .DAE, and .USD.

What is “Animation Unbaking”?

Animation Unbaking converts baked animations—where each frame is effectively keyframe data—into editable keyframe animation by automatically selecting keyframes and interpolation intervals.

Can I transfer an animation to another character?

Yes. Cascadeur offers copy/paste retargeting to transfer animations between humanoid characters, described as using only two clicks.

Alternatives

• General-purpose 3D animation packages (keyframe editors): Traditional DCC animation tools let you pose and edit keyframes, but they may not provide the same combination of AutoPosing/AutoPhysics and unbaking workflows described here.
• Motion capture cleanup tools: Specialized tools for mocap cleanup can improve motion quality, but may require more manual work to convert data into a fully keyframe-editable form.
• Retargeting-focused animation tools: Retargeting utilities help move animations between characters; you may still need a separate editor/poser to handle AI-assisted posing and physics-driven refinement.
• Standalone animation tools with physics-assisted workflows: Adjacent software in the “physics/pose assisted animation” category may target similar problems, though the specific feature set (e.g., unbaking, finger controllers, video mocap pipeline) may differ.