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10/10 alecs says:
Best 3D modelling software out there
3ds Max is one of the most widely-used off the shelf 3D animation programs by (...)
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Features
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3ds Max

By: Autodesk

[edit] Brief Description

3ds Max is a full-featured 3D graphics application developed by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It runs on the Win32 and Win64 platforms. As of August 2006, 3ds Max is in its ninth version generation. The original 3D Studio product was created for the DOS platform by the Yost Group and published by Autodesk. Autodesk purchased the product at its second release mark and internalized development entirely over the next two releases. After 3D Studio Release 4, the product was ported to the Windows NT platform, and originally named "3D Studio MAX." This version was also originally created by the Yost Group. It was released by Kinetix, which was at that time Autodesk's division of media and entertainment. Later, the product name was changed to "3ds max" (all lower case) to better comply with the naming conventions of Discreet, a Montreal-based software company which Autodesk had purchased. At release 8, the product was again branded with the Autodesk logo, and the name was again changed to "3ds Max" (upper and lower case).

[edit] Wiki description

Contents
  1. General Info
  2. System Requirements
  3. Features
    1. Modeling
    2. Animation
    3. Rendering
  4. Competitors
  5. Communities
  6. Further reading

General Info

3D Studio Max is one of the most popular 3D modeling and animation tools on the market. Also known as 3D Max, it is used most frequently used by game developers. The current version (2008) is the most expensive product in its class, with a license that's almost $3500, compared with other products that cost "only" $2000.

System Requirements

3ds Max 2008 32-bit

  • Intel Pentium IV or AMD Athlon XP or higher processor
  • 512 MB RAM
  • 500 MB swap space
  • Hardware-accelerated OpenGL and Direct3D supported

3ds Max 2008 64-bit

  • Intel EM64T, AMD Athlon 64 or higher, AMD Opteron processor
  • 1 GB RAM
  • 500 MB swap space
  • Hardware-accelerated OpenGL and Direct3D supported

Features

3D Studio Max includes numerous tools that make it the best product in its class: a modeling and texturing toolset, an animation toolset, a rendering toolset and last, but not least, an asset management and collaboration toolset.

3DS Max can eeasily be integrated into a production pipeline thanks to the Autodesk FBX free plugin. Users can also integrate data with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, AutoCAD or Autodesk Toxik.

It supports (for both input and output) numerous file formats like bitmap formats (avi, bmp, jpeg etc), texture formats (dds, exc, tif, psd etc) and scene formats (3ds, dwg, htr etc).

Modeling

For starters, the 2D shapes can be used at creating 3D geometry types. Operations like Connect and Scatter will allow users to merge shapes. For those that are not so creative, 3DS Max provides a set of ready made objects like doors and stairs.

Animation

3DS Max provides a wide range of animation tools for the most complex projects. Not only that users can create custom controllers but they can be tied together to be controlled with a single slider. Also, the character animation tools come in handy when playing with humans and crowds.

Rendering

Users will find all the right tools for creating shadows and textures.

Competitors

Some of the competitors of 3DS Max are

  • Maya, developed by Alias Systems Corporation and currently maintained by Autodesk
  • Blender, an open source 3D rendering tool that was born at the initiative of the Blender foundation who's chairman is Ton Roosendaal
  • JetStream, a commercial solution developed by NavisWorks

Communities

Further reading

Resources:  Vendor/Foundation |  Licenses |  Linux Distributions |  Programming Languages |  Programming Interfaces (API) |  Graphical Interfaces (GUI) |  Available Languages