Sega Animanium, a 3D character animation software that has been used by a number of prominent animation studios and videogame developers in Japan, is now available in both a full version and a newly released "lite" version.

USA Index Corporation, the U.S. subsidiary of Japan-based Index Corporation and licensee of Animanium, has released Animanium Express at a lower price point. Animanium Express offers most of the features of the full version of Sega Animanium, but is, however limited to no more than 180 frames and does not offer the automatic clean-up function.

The product can be purchased at the Animanium Web site and is also available at select software retailers. USA Index Corporation is also offering a free trial version of Animanium, which can also be downloaded at the Animanium Web site.

According to the creators, Animanium reduces the cost and time involved with creating realistic human movement by replacing the need for motion capture technology and cutting time spent on programming. The software integrates with leading animation programs including 3ds max, Character Studio and Maya.