Autodesk has secured a large slice of the pie by licensing its HumanIK middleware to Electronic Arts the world’s leading game developer.

Autodesk HumanIK is a customised development library that permits animated game characters to interact more realistically with digital environments by dynamically and accurately porting animation data from the authoring environment into the game engine.

The HumanIK middleware has so far been used, along with Autodesk Maya 3D software and Autodesk MotionBuilder character animation software, in EA’s Def Jam: Icon, FIFA Soccer ‘07 and NBA Street Homecourt titles.

“Through our partnership with Autodesk, we were able to achieve a new level of character animation in Def Jam: Icon, FIFA Soccer ‘07 and NBA Street Homecourt”, said Glenn Entis, EA’s chief visual and technical officer.

“Part of the reason EA consistently delivers innovative hit game titles like these is because we rely on extensive internal and external R&D. Autodesk HumanIK middleware allowed efficient porting of game data to the various platforms on which we shipped our games. Autodesk R&D team was highly responsive, quickly providing us with customised builds of the HumanIK solution.”

Autodesk HumanIK middleware provides an on-target intelligent inverse kinematics (IK) animation system. It lets game developers control the animation of a character’s body and limbs at run-time, resulting in a much higher level of realism in the game. Artists are empowered within the game authoring environment, as HumanIK delivers a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) workflow.

>> Link - Official Site/EA
>> Link - Official Site/Autodesk