[Jim]

The use of animation in industry continues to gain ground. Many companies want animations of proposed machines and/or devices to show customers in early stages of design review. Often, a project is paid in stages and this helps facilitate that process. CAD / Solid Modeling pseudo-animation can only get "so far".

True animation can bring textures and lifelike appearances to something that "engineering based systems" cannot (not as effectively anyway). Not all of the people in a design review or part of a "pitch" from a company are engineers. We take for granted the ability to "see" things in 3-D or to know what something will "really" look like when we look at a DWG or rendering.

OK, OK, not as exciting as Hollywood or Gaming, but a valuable part of the engineering process nonetheless.