Adobe Gaming Success Story

Mixamo
Animated 3D avatars go social

Game developers use Adobe® Flash® Professional and Stage3D

APIs to launch animated 3D game on Renren, China’s leading
Mixamo
San Francisco, California
social network
www.mixamo.com
Bending reality into three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface has transcended
Results gaming consoles, saturated desktops and websites, and landed squarely in the land
• Reached millions of users on China’s of social media. Now, social media enthusiasts with a penchant for games and a
biggest social networking site
• Enabled 3D gamers to customize
love of motion graphics can customize and animate their own 3D avatars that play
and animate avatars in minutes nicely with others on massive social media sites.
• Reduced development time by 35%
• Created unique workflow by A mass-market 3D social game was built by the game developers at Mixamo, providers of an online
seamlessly integrating multiple animation service that allows users to automatically create and apply animations to characters in
frameworks
minutes. This project took the form of a browser-based, 3D animated game deployed on Renren,
one of the biggest social network sites in China.
The team at Mixamo took on this ambitious project—leveraging Adobe Flash Professional software
and the advanced rendering capabilities that Stage3D APIs brings to Adobe Flash Player 11—and
set out to create a unique holiday promotion for a major beverage brand.
“Adobe Flash Professional, Adobe Flash Player 11, and Stage3D are without a doubt a great combination
of solutions for creating browser-based games that can reach the widest possible audience without the
need for a plug-in installer,” says Stefano Corazza, CEO and co-founder at Mixamo.
 Mixamo leveraged Adobe Flash Professional, Stage3D, and Adobe Flash Player 11 to create
an advanced, browser-based game—a unique holiday promotion for a major beverage brand.

Challenge Stage3D is a rendering method developed by Adobe that is part of Adobe Flash Player 11 and is
• Deliver top-quality, 3D animated supported by a set of low-level APIs. This new technology takes graphics in the browser to new heights
game for high-profile beverage
by enabling advanced 2D and 3D capabilities. The same Stage3D APIs are supported in Adobe AIR®
brand that reached mass market of
social gamers on Renren for the deployment of standalone downloadable games for desktop, TV, and mobile devices.
• Create unique end-user experience Stage3D APIs provided Mixamo developers with the ability to leverage GPU hardware acceleration
that reinforces top-tier beverage for significant performance gains when the promotional game was deployed on Renren.
brand messaging

Solution
Integrated, accelerated workflow
Deploy Adobe gaming technologies
Launching the first Adobe Flash Player 11 game on one of China’s biggest social networking sites
that leverage the tight integration required the Mixamo team to create custom workflows from scratch, having to strike the right
and advanced 3D functionality of balance between their vision and project constraints such as build size and streaming content
Adobe Flash Professional, Adobe requirements.
Flash Player 11, and Stage3D—in
tandem with Flare3D tool They needed to deliver a uniquely compelling solution for their high-profile client, while providing a
environment great social gaming experience for millions of Renren users. “To our delight, we were able to create
something a lot bigger than we ever imagined in such a short time, thanks to Adobe gaming
Systems at a glance
Adobe Gaming. Technologies used technology,” says Corazza.
include: Corazza estimates that the use of Adobe gaming technologies resulted in 35% savings on development
• Adobe ActionScript® costs by enabling the firm to leverage in-house resources and knowledge. Any other platform would
• Adobe Flash Professional have required hiring new staff with different skill sets and using untested frameworks. “If we had gone
• Adobe Flash Player 11 with less familiar technology, it would have surely resulted in a missed deadline,” he says.
• Adobe Stage3D API
Two in-house developers well versed in Adobe Flash Professional and ActionScript programming
Other technology used:
• Mixamo Flare3D worked with a design team that modeled and textured content within specifications so the builds could
stay within a certain target size—and the job could be completed within a tight six-week deadline.
The Mixamo team used the professional tools in Flare3D Studio to create the 3D content for this
project, using its intuitive interface to build content specific to the Stage3D functionality of Adobe
Flash Player 11. Flare3D creations can be exported to all platforms supported by Adobe Flash—in
this case the Renren social network.
“Our ability to leverage Adobe Flash Player 11 was made infinitely easier with Flare3D, a complete and
easy-to-use 3D framework that allows our Flash developers to focus on creativity in a familiar animation
environment,” says Corazza. The team applied character animations from the Mixamo animation
service, exported them as Collada files, and literally dragged and dropped them into Flare3D.
 “Adobe Flash Professional, Adobe Flash Player 11, and
Stage3D are without a doubt a great combination of
solutions for creating browser-based games that can
reach the widest possible audience without the need
for a plug-in installer.”
Stefano Corazza
Chief executive officer and co-founder, Mixamo

“This unique workflow gave us incredible content creation speed and enabled object transformations
and material properties to be animated in scenes, which freed developers to focus on ActionScript
programming,” says Corazza. From there, it was only a matter of days before initial builds were ready
for testing and revisions.
With the promotional game on Renren having successfully engaged several million users during the
Chinese New Year holiday season, Corazza notes that Mixamo set new precedents for what can be
done with Adobe Flash Professional, Adobe Flash Player, and Flare3D. “We see a powerful trend with
3D animation on the rise, not just for gaming but also for marketing and applications. Our technology
and services integrate so well with Adobe gaming technologies and Flare3D, we’re certainly going to
be developing more Flash powered games and applications that demonstrate how easy and effective
3D can be.”

For more information

www.adobe.com/go/gaming

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