You can download Anima from here. After starting the installer, you will see the Anima installation wizard, which will guide you through the various steps of the installation process.

Once you accept the EULA and the Consumer policy, clicking on the ‘Install‘ button will proceed to install Anima and all its plugins. Using this option, the installer will try to detect the DCC applications already installed that are compatible with the plugins and automatically install them.

Your Anima 6 and auto-detected plugins will then be installed.

When the installation process is completed, you can select whether you want to start the Anima application automatically, and close the dialog by pressing the button DONE.

Advanced Installation

If you would like to customize your installation, you will need to select the Advanced option:

Here, you can select whether you are installing Anima in Workstation or a Render Node mode:

The main difference between these two modes lies in their capabilities and limitations. The Workstation mode provides access to all features and requires a license. The Render Node mode allows loading and rendering scenes with Anima content using the plugins, but it does not allow modifying them or adding new content. Also, the Render Node mode is free to use and does not require any license. More details about these modes can be found in this article.

In the Third-party libs section, some of the options may be automatically selected for you. The installer tries to automatically detect if some of those libraries are missing in your system and selects them if needed (if you get a crash on start, it is worth trying to force the installation of these 3rd party libs manually).

When you are happy with the options selected click CONTINUE.

After that, you can select which versions of 3ds Max and Cinema 4D you would like to install Anima on:

By default, the installer will automatically select all the plugins compatible with the applications that are already installed in that device.

To select the Unreal Engine and Pixotope plugins, click on the MORE button:

Important note: The Maya plugin is removed in Anima 6. Customers with subscriptions using Anima 5 in Maya cannot update to Anima 6.

During this next step, you can choose the root installation directory for the Anima application:

Finally, you will be asked whether you want to install and use a local Chalos License server in your device, or if you prefer to use a Remote Chaos License server already installed in another device from your network:

Once the installation process has been completed, select whether you want to start the Anima application automatically and close the dialog by pressing DONE.

When Anima is opened for the first time after installing it, the preferences’ dialog appears:

After that, the EULA needs to be accepted:

Then, you will be asked to sign in to your Chaos account if you are not logged in already:

An internet browser window will open up where you need to enter your email address and password:

Then go back to the main Anima application. There, the user account should be automatically detected and, if the license could be properly activated you will see the following screen:

If this is the first time installing Anima, you will be asked if you wish to install the demo files in the current user account:

Finally, the Anima Welcome Screen will show up with a list of demo files available so you can start exploring them right away:

Troubleshooting

Issues starting the application

If you have a problem starting Anima, make sure to manually select the installation of the 3rd party libraries using the Advanced options.

If that does not solve the problem, try updating your GPU drivers. In the case of Nvidia GPUs, please make sure to download the latest version from their official website because the ones provided by Windows Update may cause problems.

Issues with the license

The following error message might appear if no licenses are available for the email logged in to Anima:

When that dialog is closed, the licensing dialog will also show that no license is available and offer the following options:

1. Manage my Chaos account: Opens an internet browser and loads the Chaos License server page.
2. Sign out: Signs out the current account so you can use another one.
3. Try to obtain the license again: Checks again if a license is available right now, which might be useful if other users from your company have released their own Anima license recently.
4. Exit: Closes the application.

If that does not solve the problem, please make sure that the Chaos license server is installed and activated on the following web page - http://127.0.0.1:30304/

Also, it might be useful to check the license server configuration. You can refer to this article for more details and instructions.

For further assistance, please check the information available in the Chaos Help Center, or submit a support request using the support contact form.