Mixamo
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | 3D computer graphics, animation software |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Founder | Stefano Corazza, Nazim Kareemi |
| Headquarters | San Francisco , United States |
| Products | 3D character animation, automatic rigging, Fuse character creator, Face Plus facial animation |
| Parent | Adobe Inc. |
Mixamo Inc. () is a San Francisco-based enterprise specializing in 3D computer graphics technologies, focusing on web-enabled solutions for 3D character animation. The company utilizes machine learning techniques to streamline the animation workflow, encompassing 3D modeling, rigging, and animation automation.
Established in 2008 by Stefano Corazza and Nazim Kareemi as an offshoot of Stanford University's Biomotion Lab, Mixamo secured over $11 million in funding from backers such as Granite Ventures, Keynote Ventures, Stanford University, and AMD Ventures. In 2015, the company became part of Adobe Inc. through acquisition.
History
Mixamo debuted its initial cloud-based animation platform in 2009, providing automatic character rigging and online animation services. By 2010, it collaborated with Evolver to offer character assets until Autodesk acquired Evolver and made it proprietary. Subsequently, Mixamo developed its own proprietary character creation system.
The company introduced an automatic rigging tool in 2011 and followed up with the Face Plus product for real-time facial animation in 2013. In March 2014, Mixamo expanded its offerings by launching Fuse, a 3D character creation application. To support scaling operations, a new pricing model was adopted in August 2014.
Adobe's acquisition of Mixamo on June 1, 2015, enhanced Adobe's capabilities within the interactive entertainment sector by incorporating Mixamo’s sophisticated 3D animation technologies into Adobe’s creative software lineup.
Fuse
In March 2014 at the Game Developers Conference, Mixamo unveiled Fuse Character Creator. Fuse was developed based on Siddhartha Chaudhuri’s research within Vladlen Koltun’s group at Stanford and integrated Allegorithmic’s Substance technology. An early version had been released in November 2013.
Fuse allows users to design 3D characters by combining customizable body parts, apparel, and textures. These characters can then be exported to multiple 3D modeling programs and game engines. The Fuse 1.0 release on Steam in March 2014 introduced support for user-generated content integration. By August 2014, Fuse added functionality for importing and modifying character models created with Microsoft's Kinect 2.0.
Development ceased in September 2019, and the software was removed from Adobe Creative Cloud by September 2020. However, version 1.3 remains accessible through the Steam Marketplace.
Rigging service
Mixamo pioneered the first online automatic rigging service for 3D models with its Auto-Rigger technology, employing machine learning to rapidly insert skeletal structures and compute skinning weights within minutes. Although users can still upload custom models for rigging via the web platform, Adobe has discontinued server-side model storage as part of a strategic product realignment.
3D character animation
Mixamo provides an animation marketplace offering downloadable 3D characters alongside motion-capture animations refined by keyframe artists. These animations are fully compatible with characters created in Fuse or rigged using Mixamo’s Auto-Rigger tool, catering to various requirements in game development projects.
Real-time facial animation
In August 2013, Mixamo introduced Face Plus, a tool for real-time facial animation that allowed users to capture facial expressions through a webcam and map them instantly onto characters within the Unity game engine. Created in partnership with AMD and utilizing GPU acceleration, Face Plus highlighted Mixamo's advancements in interactive animation technology. This innovation received industry acclaim, notably featured in the award-winning animated short film "Unplugged." Despite its initial success, Adobe phased out Face Plus by 2017 to better align with shifting corporate strategies.