FAQ

Yes, Cascadeur does support Mac since the version 2023.1 (May 19, 2023). Please see the System Requirements page to check that your hardware is supported by Cascadeur.

1. Please make sure that your computer meets the minimum requirements.

2. If the requirements are met, please send an email to our technical support team at support@cascadeur.com. In the email, please attach the problematic .casc scene file, your crash dumps, log files and dxdiag files.

Crash dumps are located at C:\Users\user_name\AppData\Local\CrashDumps

Log files are located at C:\Users\user_name\AppData\Local\Nekki Limited\Cascadeur\logs

DxDiag file can be found by pressing the Start button, entering "dxdiag" and selecting the dxdiag entry in the results.

Most of the time this happens when there’s no animation data that could be pasted into your scene, meaning:

1. There’s no animation in the file you’re trying to import.

2. Animation data in this file is either corrupted or in incompatible format.

Another possible reason why the error pops up is that the skeleton hierarchies of the character in the scene and that of the character in the fbx file you’re importing don’t match 100%. If you’re certain that the skeleton hierarchies are supposed to be matching, you can try the following steps:

1. Select the scene character’s entire skeleton hierarchy

2. Import the animation file via the “File → Import Fbx/Dae → Animation to selected objects” command

Yes, this is possible.

If you’re content with simply attaching the prop mesh to the character’s hand joint, you can do so with the following steps:

1. Create a new animation track for the prop by pressing Ctrl + Shift + N. You can change the name’s track to match your prop’s name.

2. Select the prop animation track on the timeline and add the prop mesh to the scene using the File → Import Fbx/Dae → Scene.

3. Select the prop mesh in the Outliner window and drag it over the hand/weapon joint - this will parent the mesh to the joint. Alternatively, you can select the prop mesh, the hand/weapon joint and parent them together with the command at Commands → Transform → Set parent.

4. Make sure that the timeline keyframe cursor is set on the first frame and adjust the prop mesh’s local position and rotation to fit the hand - it can be done either manually or by adjusting the local parameters in the Object properties window.

You can also add a rig to the weapon, either by using the Quick Rigging tool or manually creating the rig elements for it.
If you would like to use the Quick Rigging tool, please check out the tutorial page.
If you would like to do it manually, please check out the documentation page on how it can be done.

Currently, AutoPosing can only work with rigs adhering to certain requirements.

The easiest way to build such a rig is to use the Quick Rigging Tool:

1. Enter the Rig mode with your character imported in the scene.

2. Open the Quick Rigging Tool (Objects → Quick Rigging Tool).

3. Set appropriate joints for every field in the window to the right by dragging the joint entries into a corresponding field.

Please note that for Cascadeur to be able to create the AutoPosing rig for your character, you would need to fill all of the fields in the Body section of the Quick Rigging tool, except for the “weapon” fields.

See the Quick Rigging Tool and Quick Rigging Tool page to learn more about how to do this.

Unfortunately, it’s not possible at the moment, but we are looking forward to expanding the capabilities of our autoposing tool by cooperating with companies that have a large amount of animation data to feed the neural network.

Yes, Cascadeur does support scripting with Python 3.11.

You can learn more about scripting in Cascadeur on the documentation page and the Cascadeur API page.

Yes, you can import and export both animations and stand-alone models in widely popular FBX and Collada (DAE) formats. The alpha support for USD format has been added in the version 2023.2

There is also an option to export animations into video files.

If an animation you create ends up looking like this:

This is caused by incorrectly placed Additional Controllers.

Additional Controllers are used in combination with Main and Direction controllers to set the rotation for corresponding Rigid Bodies. This means that they should be placed at an angle to the line defined by Main and Direction Controllers, as shown on the image below, on the left side:

Left: a correctly placed Additional Controller. Right: an Additional Controller with an incorrect position.

When this angle is zero, - or close to zero - the software won’t be able to correctly calculate the rotation values for the Rigid Bodies, which in turn would lead to the distortion shown above.

So the solution for such an issue would be moving incorrectly placed Additional Controllers to their proper positions:

1. Enable Rig Mode:

2. Select the controllers.

3. Use Manipulators to place them at appropriate places.

4. Rebuild the rig by clicking Generate rig:

Alternatively, you can simply disable the Rig Mode.

Either way, the updated rig should work correctly.

To learn about placing Additional Controllers see the Additional Controllers page.

To learn more about Additional Points and Point Controllers in general, see these pages:
Point Controllers
Prototype Objects

This happens because your OS has the 'Block untrusted fonts' feature enabled. Because of this, the system block loading any fonts other than the ones that are already installed in the system. This, in turn, which leads to problems with programs that use their own fonts, including Cascadeur.

There are two ways to solve this issue.

First, you can install fonts used by Cascadeur into the system. Font files can be found in the [Cascadeur main directory]\resources\fonts folder.

A second way would be to add the cascadeur.exe file to the list of exceptions in the system registry. To do this:

1. Run PowerShell as an administrator.

2. Execute the following two commands:

This happens because your system has non-Unicode characters. To solve this issue, please do the following steps:

1. Go to Windows Settings → Time & language → Language & region → Administrative language settings → Change system locale, and turn on Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support

2. Restart your PC for the changes to take effect

After that, you should be able to save your scenes

Cascadeur is a software for creating believable and realistic 3d action animations

Unlike other animation software, character rig in Cascadeur includes physical objects. When you animate your character, you animate movements of rigid bodies as well. Then, our tools use this informnation to calculate, visualize and, if necesary, improve physical characteristics of the pose or animation of the character.

This greatly simplifies animation process and makes it possible to create complex action scenes without relying on motion capture and with no stuntmen involved.

We also aim to make Cascadeur as convenient and user-friendly as possible, so it will be easy to use even if you are not a professional animator.

For everyone interested in realistic character animation.

Physically accurate animations are not easy to make. Even something as simple as a falling dice requires a lot of effort. The purpose of Cascadeur is to make it possible to create physically accurate animations with only key frames, without relying on simulations or motion capture. If you are interested in realistic animations, this is the solution for you.

But even if you are not, Cascadeur is still very much capable of creating traditional character animation.

For a long time, Cascadeur was our inhouse project. Over the years, we’ve used Cascadeur for our games such as:

• Vector 1 and 2
• Shadow Fight
• Shadow Fight 2
• Shadow Fight 3
• Shadow Fight Arena

While working on Shadow Fight 3 we implemented numerous new features and revised many of the existing ones. It was then when we realized that the software has evolved and matured enough to be used outside of our studio.

Cascadeur is constantly getting new improvements, tools and features. The development team has already implemented such features as:

-Secondary body animation

-Animation loops

-AutoPosing for body and fingers

-Python scripting

-Video Mocap

-Fulcrum Motion Cleaning

To learn about upcoming features, see our roadmap

You can check our social network accounts:

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/cascadeurEN/

YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/@Cascadeur

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cascadeur_soft

Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/Ymwjhpn

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cascadeur_3d

Cascadeur supports third-party software through standard FBX and Collada formats, as well as the USD format (in alpha version as of Cascadeur 2023.2)

See Import FBX/DAE and Export FBX/DAE to learn more about file formats.

Cascadeur is currently available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Please consult the System Requirements page to check if your device is supported.

Even if you’re a novice, it shouldn’t be hard to start.

While 3d animation is not an easy subject, we are aiming to create an instrument that will significantly lower the learning curve. So you won't need any specific knowledge to start creating animations in Cascadeur.

You can learn the basics by watching our Tutorials.

For more detailed topics, check our text-based tutorials

And if you’d like to know more about user interface and tools included in Cascadeur, you might want to check the Documentation.

We also have a Discord server, where teh staff can help you with learning and using Cascadeur.

You can download Cascadeur from our site.

In Cascadeur, the Y axis is always directed up; Cascadeur units, which are equal to centimeters, are used as measure units.

Neither of these can be changed at the moment. Because of this, models imported from software with different coordinate systems and/or measure units might end up with incorrect scales or rotations.

To work around this issue we recommend to take into account the configuration of coordinate axes and measure units in the software you are using for creating the models. Most of the 3d solutions provide options to change the corresponding settings either in the scene itself or during export.

In Blender, for example, if you are using FBX export, the corresponding settings can be found under the Transfor tab:

For the AutoPosing tool to work correctly, the additional points on the elbows and knees of the character rig should be placed as shown on the image on the left:

Left: the correct placement of the controllers; right: the incorrect placement.

Pay attention to this as you create a rig for the character.
You can learn more about rigging the character’s limbs on the Hinge Connections page.

The example is provided by the user Montana from Cascadeur Discord channel.

This problem appears when the AutoPhysics tool is applied to a stay-in-place animation, such as a walk or run cycle. In animations like these the character’s legs slide on the ground.

AutoPhysics uses fulcrum points to calculate physically accurate motions. If the character’s leg (or other body part) doesn’t change its spatial position across several frames, it is considered a fulcrum point.
But when legs slide on the ground, like in our case, the system does not recognize them as fulcrum points. Instead it assumes that the character is in mid-air, and alters the animation accordingly.

Currently, the tool is not suited for working with stay-in place animations. However, if you still want to use it for such animation, you can do the following:

1. Create an animation with a character moving.

2. Apply AutoPhysics to it.

3. Squeeze it into a stay-in-place animation.
See the Stay in Place Animation page to learn how to do this.

Tools like AutoPosing and AutoPhysics do not support outdated character rigs found in old scenes.
To be able to use such scenes, you'll need to re-generate the rigs in a newer version of Cascadeur.