Continue reading »]]> Autodesk has suggested new releases of a digital party origination program and middleware. The 2012 versions capacitate iterative workflows, assistance users conduct complexity, and yield new artistic tools.

“Our 2012 product releases strap a latest hardware record to boost opening and broach overwhelming graphics in a viewport,” says Marc Petit, Autodesk comparison clamp president, Media Entertainment. “We have also extended interoperability and simplified tube integration, creation it easier for a business to take advantage of specialized apparatus sets, and supposing new artistic collection for complicated prolongation trends like unsentimental moviemaking and stereoscopic 3D production.”

Building on a success by charity finished suites, Autodesk continued in this instruction by phenomenon a 2012 Entertainment Creation Suites that give artists and prolongation comforts entrance to a operation of artistic apparatus sets during an appealing price. Artists can extend their informed Autodesk 3ds Max or Maya workflow with discerning collection for sculpting and hardness painting, real-time impression animation, and effects. Single-step interoperability and some-more unchanging user interfaces in a suites capacitate artists to some-more simply implement mixed products from a company; they also make specialized apparatus sets some-more permitted to a user.

The stars of a suites are a particular program applications, any sole alone as good as bundled in new packages. All a products in these Entertainment Creation Suites offer new facilities and enhancements. For instance, 3ds Max 2012 delivers a new accelerated graphics core, mRigids for energetic rigid-body simulations in a viewport and new sculpting and portrayal enhancements, like a Clone brush. Maya 2012 provides poignant enhancements to a viewport charity full-screen effects, editable suit trails for animation modifying in a viewport, as good as new make-believe options. Autodesk Softimage 2012 provides new procedural ICE modeling, integrated Syflex cloth simulation, stereoscopic capabilities, and mixed core SDK additions. Autodesk Mudbox 2012 delivers enhancements to a portrayal apparatus set, new UV and topology-independent workflows, unsentimental posing tools, and softened vast dataset handling. Autodesk MotionBuilder 2012 provides a new in-viewport stereoscopic arrangement and camera rig, a one interface and solver for Autodesk HumanIK 4.5 or 2012 middleware, as good as new collection for unsentimental moviemaking.

A stand-alone permit for possibly Maya 2012 or 3ds Max 2012 costs $3495. The Entertainment Creation Suite Premium 2012, that offers Maya or Max, together with Softimage, Mudbox, and MotionBuilder software, costs $6495 (a 42 percent assets over purchasing a program separately). A stand-alone permit for Softimage 2012 is labelled at  $2995.

In addition, Autodesk announced artistic finishing program for film, television, and postproduction. Autodesk Flame Premium combines high-end visible effects and finishing collection with real-time tone grading in a singular solution. The 2012 recover features: collection for integrating ultra-realistic 3D lighting effects into composites; a extensive set of effects collection for finishing stereoscopic 3D projects; extended finishing workflows with CG pipelines; and collection for creation 3D compositing as quick and interactive as normal 2D compositing.

Autodesk Smoke 2012 offers a timeline-based, all-in-one artistic resolution for veteran finishing on a Mac. The Smoke apparatus set spans tone correction, compositing, 3D visible effects, and stereoscopic 3D, and facilities an fit interrelated workflow with Apple Final Cut Pro.

Autodesk also targeted a middleware marketplace for gaming in an try to solve famous runtime hurdles by enabling programmers to concentration on high-impact areas of development. To this end, an extended API in Autodesk Beast 2012 global-illumination middleware enables developers to confederate a eRnsT interactive lighting preview apparatus into tradition game-level editors. Autodesk HumanIK 2012 impression animation middleware now supports a next-generation unstable party complement (code name: NGP) from Sony

Computer Entertainment, as good as a Apple iOS mobile platform, enabling some-more picturesque impression animation on a latest mobile gaming devices. And, Autodesk Kynapse 2012 synthetic comprehension middleware focuses on improving runtime opening and creation modernized facilities easier to use.

Article source: http://www.cgw.com/Publications/CGW/2011/Volume-34-Issue-4-April-2011-/Spotlight-Products.aspx

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Continue reading »]]> This year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC), held during early March in San Francisco, saw a healthy attendance: More than 19,000 gaming professionals reportedly attended the conference and exhibition. In fact, if those figures are correct, that is a record attendance for the show—and an excellent turnout during a time when interest in large trade shows is on the decline.

So, what awaited this crowd? There were a number of tutorials and summits, hundreds of lectures, and, of course, the annual Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards. Augmenting the conference and co-located events was the expo floor. This year, the exposition seemed to be divided into two nearly equal segments: those vendors offering video game development tools, and studios either showcasing their new titles and/or recruiting talent (schools also shared this area, pitching their programs to would-be students). Encompassing all these areas were the “world showcase” pavilions featuring vendors from a common state or country—from Germany, Canada, and Scotland, to Georgia and other regional and national locales.

While the number of vendors showing off their digital content creation software and hardware seemed to be lower this year than in the past, that does not mean the quality of those tools was lacking. In fact, some of the products—either making their initial debut or having recently been released—are quite impressive and have the potential to make a positive impact on game development.

With that said, Computer Graphics World has named its selections for the magazine’s Silver Edge Awards at GDC 2011. The newly unveiled Edge Awards are presented to companies whose product represents the best of show at the CG industry’s leading conferences and exhibitions, including GDC.

“There are a number of products—software, hardware, or possibly something that falls into a totally different category—that cause excitement and buzz at a trade show, or have the potential to greatly impact the industry. We wanted to formally recognize these cutting-edge offerings following the industry’s most important exhibitions,” says CGW chief editor Karen Moltenbrey.

Autodesk’s 2012 Entertainment Creation Suites. The various software releases that are part of the suites—the 2012 versions of 3ds Max, Maya, Mudbox, Softimage, and MotionBuilder—are impressive on their own, leveraging the latest advances in hardware. But when bundled together within the new suites, they are unmatched in terms of giving users advanced tools for advanced graphics creation in games.

Image Metric’s FaceWare 3.0. The company has been providing amazing facial animation for many triple-A game studios for years, and recently the company began offering this markerless analysis technology to animators, giving a studio’s artists creative control over the content. To this end, Version 3.0 contains some new key features, such as auto-pose, a shared pose database, and curve refinement.

Dassault’s 3DVIA tools. This  product continues to intrigue. The purpose of 3DVIA is to make 3D content creation easier, and it does just that. There are a number of tools under the 3DVIA umbrella, and they all serve in helping to democratize 3D development, including 3DVIA Studio for building high-quality 3D games on the Web.

Unity’s game engine. It is the game engine that could, a development platform for games and interactive 3D on the Web, iOS, Android, consoles, and more. Introduced in 2005, the Unity game engine’s popularity has soared. At the show, the company released Unity Android, enabling developers to easily port Unity-based games to the Android platform.

Autodesk’s Project Skyline. Unlike the other offerings here, Project Skyline—discussed openly at GDC—is best described as a concept technology than an actual product at this time. Nevertheless, it is quite intriguing and could have a radical effect on future game development. Skyline proposes to open up the current closed development pipeline to give content creators the ability to do live content authoring within a game engine. In short, it would put more control in the hands of the animators rather than code writers.

Adobe’s Molehill. While not yet a shipping product, Molehill (code name) is a new set of low-level, GPU-accelerated 3D APIs targeted at experienced 3D developers for delivering sophisticated 3D experiences. Using the new 3D APIs in Adobe Flash Player and AIR will make it possible to deliver sophisticated 3D experiences across almost every computer and device connected to the Internet.

Continue reading »]]>
FurryBall is an interactive renderer that helps we render in realtime with a energy of your GPU within Maya..unfortunately it does not have support for 3ds max yet. With furryball renderer there is no some-more time-consuming exports and watchful and tuning in new applications…You dont need to wait for mins now with furryball we can count in seconds. You can see your describe in real-time with bumpmaps, textures, soothing shadows, reflections and refractions,ambient occlusion and tone bleeding, abyss of margin and many other facilities directly in Maya viewport. FurryBall is about 30-300x TIMES faster than CPU renderers on unchanging Graphics card.

Read More….

Article source: http://www.mrcad.com/furryball-1-3-gpu-realtime-renderer-for-maya/

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Continue reading »]]> Mumbai:Autodesk, Inc.’s entertainment software helped leading studios create many of the summer’s most popular films. Autodesk software was used throughout digital film pipelines, from pre-visualization and virtual cinematography to mastering and final animation.

The Happening

The Third Floor, a Los Angeles-based digital studio, used Autodesk Maya 3D modeling software and Autodesk MotionBuilder character animation software to craft several of The Happening’s signature moments. The film’s car crash and lion attack scenes were pre-visualized in Maya. This enabled director M. Night Shyamalan to approve the intent of performances and camerawork in advance of filming.

“Autodesk Maya is our directors’ sandbox,” said The Third Floor CEO Chris Edwards. “It allows us to create anything our clients can imagine.”

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Using Maya and MotionBuilder, The Third Floor also designed and pre-visualized three major sequences for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: the River God, Lucy’s Dream and the End Battle. This process allowed The Third Floor to stage the action and propose alternative shot ideas to director Andrew Adamson, adding further depth and detail to the story.

Hancock

Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) completed over 500 shots in Hancock using Maya and the Autodesk Flame visual effects system. “Major sequences such as the Hollywood Fight, the Hospital Battle and the SUV Chase couldn’t have been created without Maya and Flame,” said SPI senior visual effects artist Todd Mesher. “Their creative tools and interactivity make them key to our digital pipeline.”

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Visual effects studio Frantic Films VFX served as a visual effects provider for the stereoscopic feature film Journey to the Center of the Earth. In addition to designing a custom character pipeline for the film, Frantic Films VFX also built a stereoscopic pipeline. These pipelines included Autodesk software, used to produce more than 180 shots. All animation and lighting was created with Autodesk 3ds Max 3D animation software, which was also used extensively in the ocean sequences. In addition, Autodesk Mudbox software was used to sculpt creatures.

“Once again, 3ds Max software’s power and flexibility were indispensable,” said Frantic Films VFX visual effects supervisor Chris Harvey. “The software’s scriptability made it the backbone of our digital pipeline. As well, we forged new ground in creature animation and were extremely happy with the software’s performance.”

Digital Color Grading at EFILM

Numerous films were completed by EFILM, using its EWORKS system for the digital intermediate. The EWORKS system consists of a proprietary configuration of Autodesk Lustre and Autodesk Incinerator technology. Films included Horton Hears a Who, The Ruins, Nim’s Island, Sex and the City, Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, What Happens in Vegas, Red Belt, The Incredible Hulk, Wanted and Get Smart.

Leading visual effects and animation facilities continued the tradition of relying on Autodesk technology to deliver the majority of Hollywood blockbusters released this summer, including:

• Get Smart: DIGIT did the majority of compositing work with Flame and Autodesk Combustion desktop compositing software. In addition, DIGIT built all the 3D parachutes in Maya.
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Industrial Light & Magic completed 540 shots (48 minutes of screen time) with Maya and the Autodesk Inferno system as part of its proprietary Sabre system. Maya was used for modeling, creature development and particle work.

• Iron Man: Industrial Light & Magic completed 410 shots with Maya and Inferno as part of its Sabre system.
• Kung Fu Panda: DreamWorks used Maya and Lustre.
• Meet Dave: CIS Hollywood completed 163 shots for the film, with approximately one-third of the film composited with Inferno. Using Maya and MotionBuilder, The Third Floor pre-visualized five sequences that involved elaborate interaction between the aliens and the real world.
• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: Digital Domain used Maya extensively to animate the emperor in his changing liquid-solid state. The company also incorporated Maya nCloth when creating the Foundation Army’s flags and desiccated clothing. Rhythm & Hues used Mudbox to model dragons, Nion and Yeti.
• The Incredible Hulk: Rhythm and Hues completed 234 shots, using Maya and Mudbox extensively for modeling both the Hulk and the Abomination characters. Maya was also used to model vehicles and objects.
• Tropic Thunder: CIS Vancouver used Maya, Inferno and Flame. CIS Hollywood primarily used Maya, along with 3ds Max, Inferno and Flame.
• X-Files: I Want to Believe: Entity FX supervised almost 400 visual effects shots, which included the use of Inferno and Maya. A large portion of the work involved radically altering shot environments through digital weather effects, such as photorealistic, computer-generated snow.

Original article

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Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) today launched Autodesk Mudbox 2009 software for 3D modelers and texture artists working on entertainment and design projects.  Mudbox combines an intuitive user interface with a powerful toolset for creating highly-detailed 3D models. The software gives artists the freedom to create without worrying about technical details. Mudbox has shaped characters in blockbuster movies and games, including Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Mist and Mass Effect.

“Our goal is to make early stage digital assets resemble their final ‘on-screen’ forms as closely as possible,” said Dave Cardwell, Mudbox product designer at Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “Starting with accurate models makes the production process more efficient and provides a higher-quality end result. For example, you’d want to know early on whether a prominent brow will shadow a character’s eyes. That’s why Autodesk Mudbox 2009 has texture painting tools and on-target display features; these will help artists build and refine better 3D models.”

“The introduction of Autodesk Mudbox 2009 sparks a revolution in computer graphics tools, bringing about a paradigm shift in how designers and artists do their work,” said Habib Zargarpour, senior art director at Electronic Arts.

Dan Platt, modeler at Disney Animation Studios, said, “Time is money. An Autodesk Mudbox session begins with its artist-friendly, intuitive interface. This is sculpting at the speed of thought with the greatest of fidelity. In a business where new ideas with impossible deadlines are commonplace, Mudbox never lets me down.”

New Feature Highlights in Autodesk Mudbox 2009

Texture Painting
A new, production-ready toolset makes it easy for artists to paint multiple diffuse, bump, specular, and reflection textures across multiple high-resolution maps on their models:

• Users can paint directly on 3D models to add detail precisely where it’s required, regardless of UV distortion or surface complexity.
• Reference images can be painted onto a model from screen space using the new Projection brush.
• Users can paint multiple maps on multiple UV tiles simultaneously and assign multiple UV tiles on a single mesh.

Performance Enhancements
Recognized for its ability to handle data-heavy models, the latest version of Mudbox offers greater interactivity while working on high-resolution meshes. In particular, camera manipulation and brush speed have been improved, enabling artists to work interactively with 3D models that are fully subdivided into tens of millions of polygons across the entire mesh.

On-Target Display
Mudbox 2009 includes a host of rendering technologies that leverage the power of the OpenGL application programming interface (API) and today’s powerful graphics cards. The software offers an accurate, on-target environment for real-time evaluation as the digital asset is manipulated, as well as for enhanced interactive presentations to clients and art directors.

Improved Interoperability with Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max
Mudbox 2009 provides enhanced interoperability with Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max software through improved matching of normal and displacement maps produced by Maya and 3ds Max.

Artist-Friendly User Interface
Mudbox 2009 continues to deliver a highly intuitive user interface that gives artists the freedom to focus on the art of 3D modeling.

For a complete list of new features and enhancements in Autodesk Mudbox 2009, visit www.autodesk.com/pr-mudbox.

Pricing and Availability
Autodesk anticipates that Mudbox 2009 will be available in October 2008. Mudbox 2009 will be supported on the Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Windows Vista operating systems.  Autodesk suggested retail pricing is $745 USD*.

*International pricing may vary.

Sample Gallery:

Autodesk Mudbox

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We’re having another contest! And here’s why: Simply put, we’re working on some really interesting new technology and we need some good looking scenes to test with… and we need lots of them right away

The guidelines we’re asking everyone to work under (and the reason we’re calling it “Ghost of Ghost”) are very similar to the original feature sets from the old Ghost alpha releases back in 2000 (For those of you that may not know the history, “Ghost” was the codename of what eventually became “Brazil r/s”).

The rules are pretty Simple: Use straight, brute-force GI and ray tracing, and only use a couple of specific materials. This very constrained working environment might seem crazy by today’s standards, but at the time we released the original alpha-test versions, we had hundreds of people playing with the renderer and sending us stellar imagery that was beyond anything anyone had ever seen come out of 3ds Max (or most any other 3d packages at the time).

Back then, Ghost/Brazil was brand new and we had to test specific things before we could move forward with other features. Today we’re in the same spot and need new scenes to test on this new early-development piece of code. Besides, it’ll be fun to see what artists can do today when you take away all their advanced renderer controls and they stop worrying about rendertimes… And now, we can do this with big cash prizes, which we couldn’t do back in the old Ghost days.

So, let’s Kick it Old-School: Dust off those old scenes you have laying around, start re-rendering them, and get them into the contest!

Most of all, have fun with this. We look forward to being able to share more about what we’ve been working on here.

Contest Rules

• Start Sept 18 (Today!)
• End Oct 15
• 5 categories, with entries judged by SplutterFish jury
• Prizes include:
  • Overall Grand Prize: $2500**
  • Plus, five $1000 prizes: One for each first place winner in the categories below.**
  • Plus, the first 20 entries in each category, which meet the contest guidelines and “don’t completely suck,” get their choice of a free SplutterFish t-shirt* or a coupon for 50% off the purchase of any single brazil r/s license.
• All entries must include the rendered image and the full max scenefile, including all maps.
• All entries will be submitted with a release/entry form that gives SplutterFish a non-exclusive license to use and modify the scene
• Entries can be submitted privately, but we welcome artists to post WIP versions to the forum if they want feedback and help.
• Multiple entries per participant are allowed
• All entries must conform to the Technical Guidelines listed below.
• Everyone is welcome to enter
• All entries will be scored on a point system for technical and artistic quality with bonus points given for early entry (before Oct 1), animations, and scene complexity.

Categories

1. Architecture: interior, exterior daylight, exterior night, etc.
2. Industrial Design: consumer products, engineering, manufacturing, medical equipment, etc.
3. High-End Product Advertising: automotive, marine, jewelery, etc.
4. Non-Photoreal Animated Character: animated feature film style, FPS/Fantasy game character/environment, etc.
5. Photorealistic VFX: digital matte paintings, set-extension, hero-creature, sci-fi, period, etc.

Technical Guidelines:

• Use any version of 3ds Max, Brazil r/s V2 for 3ds Max, or the FREE Brazil V2 Rio Edition
• You can use full raytracing with brute force QMC GI (ie. “Global Illumination: On”) — no photons and no rendercache — GI is not required
• You can use the following materials:
  • Brazil 2 Advanced Material
  • Blend
• The Brazil 2 Advanced Materials must be all using the Default Shader with either a phong highlight or no highlight
• You can use the following textures:
  • Bitmap – in any slot in the Brazil 2 Advanced Material
  • Brazil 2 Fresnel
  • Mix
• It’s not required, but preference may be given to scenes that don’t have deep material trees (ie. avoid using blends within blends, and mixes within mixes)
• You can use the following for lighting:
  • Brazil 2 Main Light, set to “point” or “direct” with any Brazil2 Ray Shadows (so you can use area shadows, but not an area light)
  • You can use include/exclude lists with the lights
  • You can use the Luma Server Skylight
  • You cannot use the include/exclude lists in the Luma Server (or in other spots outside the Brazil 2 Lights)
• Use a Brazil 2 Camera, with any lens.
• Do not use:
  • Motion Blur
  • Depth of Field
  • Brazil2 Displacement (using max’s displacement is ok)
  • BzSphere and BzPlane Objects
  • Dispersion — any other feature (ie. Glossy reflections and refractions) in the Brazil 2 advanced material is ok.
  • Volumetrics/Atmospherics — You can use simple “Fog”
  • No render effects
• Scene cannot contain copyrighted material (ie. no turbosquid objects that you don’t have the authority to give away)

Please try to stick to the spirit of this and please don’t “game” the rules. If we have to change the technical guidelines to clarify something, we will.
Click here to go to the Contest Entry (Scene Submission) Form.
* for t-shirts shipped outside North America, the winners will have to pay shipping.
** cash prizes will be awarded via paypal. If winner resides in a non-paypal country, prize will be awarded via direct bank-wire

__________________

The Ghost of Ghost Challenge: RULES – SplutterFish Forums

Continue reading »]]> VRay materials don’t have a self-illumination setting like standard materials do. Sometimes you may need a vray material to provide its own illumination and there is a way to do that. If you make a vraylight material and assign a map to the color channel, you achieve a self-illuminated material in VRay. A VRaylight material looks practically identical to a standard material with self illumination at 100.

A vraylight material emits a small amount of light with its multiplier left at the default 1.0. By increasing that value, you can make it throw off more light, though it additively brightens the color map you have assigned. This may be undesirable in some cases. You can make it give off more light without it brightening the map by right clicking the object and selecting VRay-properties. From there, you can increase the “Generate GI” value.

Continue to VRay Tutorial

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Continue reading »]]> A V-Ray tutorial from trinity3d.com:

Many of you out there have probably run into the problem of needing motion in a GI lit scene. Usually this results in splotchiness and noise that swims around. V-Ray 1.50 has come up with a solution to address this. You can pre-calculate, and blend your irradiance maps together with the following steps.

First, make an animation with motion in it. I’ve made a simple reactor simulation for this scene. Here are the steps for creating that:

VRay Tutorial – Blending Irradiance Maps in V-Ray 1.50

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Continue reading »]]> 3ds Max (formerly 3D Studio MAX) is a full-featured 3D graphics application developed by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It runs on the Win32 and Win64 platforms. 3ds Max is currently in its eleventh version (as of April 2008) entitled 3ds Max 2009, which adds enhanced support for complex pipelines and workflows.

Early history & Releases

The original 3D Studio product was created for the DOS platform by the Yost Group and published by Autodesk. After 3D Studio Release 4, the product was rewritten for 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. Autodesk purchased the product at the second release mark of the 3D Studio MAX version and internalized development entirely over the next two releases. 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). At release 2009, product name changed to “Autodesk 3ds Max”.

Overview

3ds Max is the second most widely-used off the shelf 3D animation program by content creation professionals according to the Roncarelli report. It has strong modeling capabilities, a flexible plugin architecture and a long heritage on the Microsoft Windows platform. It is mostly used by video game developers, TV commercial studios and architectural visualization studios. It is also used for movie effects and movie pre-visualization.

In addition to its modeling and animation tools, the latest version of 3ds Max also features advanced shaders (such as ambient occlusion and subsurface scattering), dynamic simulation, particle systems, radiosity, normal map creation and rendering, global illumination, an intuitive and fully-customizable user interface, and its own scripting language. There is also a plethora of specialized renderer plugins that can be bought separately, such as V-Ray, Brazil r/s , Maxwell Render, and finalRender.

Rendering

• Scanline rendering – The default rendering method in 3DS Max is scanline rendering. Several advanced features have been added to the scanliner over the years, such as global illumination, radiosity, and ray tracing.mental ray
• mental ray is a production quality renderer integrated into the later versions of MAX, and is a powerful rendering tool, with bucket rendering, a technique that distributes the rendering burden between several computers efficiently. The 3ds Max version of mental ray also comes with a set of tools that allow a myriad of effects to be created with relative ease.
• RenderMan – A third party connection tool to RenderMan pipelines is also available for those that need to integrate Max into Renderman render farms.
• V-Ray – A third-party render engine plug-in for 3D Studio MAX. It is widely used, frequently substituting the standard and mental ray renderers which are included bundled with 3ds Max. V-Ray continues to be compatible with older versions of 3ds Max.
• Brazil R/S – A third-party high-quality photorealistic rendering system created by SplutterFish, LLC capable of fast ray tracing and global illumination.
• FinalRender – Another third-party raytracing render engine created by Cebas. Capable of simulating a wide range of real-world physical phenomena.
• Maxwell Render – A third-party photorealistic rendering system created by Next Limit Technologies providing robust materials and highly accurate unbiased rendering.

Features

• MAXScript – MAXScript is a built-in scripting language, and can be used to automate repetitive tasks, combine existing functionality in new ways, develop new tools and user interfaces and much more. Plugin modules can be created entirely in MAXscript.
• Character Studio – Character Studio was a plugin which since version 4 of Max is now integrated in 3D Studio Max helping user to animate virtual characters. The system works using a character rig or “Biped” which is pre-made and allows the user to adjust the rig to fit the character they will be animating. Dedicated curve editors and motion capture data import tools make Character Studio ideal for character animation. “Biped” objects have other useful features that automated the production of walk cycles and movement paths, as well as secondary motion.
• Scene Explorer – Scene Explorer, a tool that provides a hierarchical view of scene data and analysis, facilitates working with more complex scenes. Scene Explorer has the ability to sort, filter, and search a scene by any object type or property (including metadata). Added in 3ds Max 2008, it was the first component to facilitate DotNet managed code in 3ds Max outside of MAXScript.
• DWG Import – 3ds Max supports both import and linking of DWG files. Improved memory management in 3ds Max 2008 enables larger scenes to be imported with multiple objects.
• Texture Assignment/Editing – 3ds Max offers operations for creative texture and planar mapping, including tiling, mirroring, decals, angle, rotate, blur, UV stretching, and relaxation; Remove Distortion; Preserve UV; and UV template image export. The texture workflow includes the ability to combine an unlimited number of textures, a material/map browser with support for drag-and-drop assignment, and hierarchies with thumbnails. UV workflow features include Pelt mapping, which defines custom seams and enables users to unfold UVs according to those seams; copy/paste materials, maps and colors; and access to quick mapping types (box, cylindrical, spherical).General Keyframing
• Two keying modes—set key and auto key—offer support for different keyframing workflows. Fast and intuitive controls for keyframing—including cut, copy, and paste—let the user create animations with ease. Animation trajectories may be viewed and edited directly in the viewport.
• Constrained Animation – Objects can be animated along curves with controls for alignment, banking, velocity, smoothness, and looping, and along surfaces with controls for alignment. Weight path-controlled animation between multiple curves, and animate the weight. Objects can be constrained to animate with other objects in many ways—including look at, orientation in different coordinate spaces, and linking at different points in time. These constraints also support animated weighting between more than one target.
  • All resulting constrained animation can be collapsed into standard keyframes for further editing.
• Skinning – Either the Skin or Physique modifier may be used to achieve precise control of skeletal deformation, so the character deforms smoothly as joints are moved, even in the most challenging areas, such as shoulders. Skin deformation can be controlled using direct vertex weights, volumes of vertices defined by envelopes, or both.
  • Capabilities such as weight tables, paintable weights, and saving and loading of weights offer easy editing and proximity-based transfer between models, providing the accuracy and flexibility needed for complicated characters.
  • The rigid bind skinning option is useful for animating low-polygon models or as a diagnostic tool for regular skeleton animation.
  • Additional modifiers, such as Skin Wrap and Skin Morph, can be used to drive meshes with other meshes and make targeted weighting adjustments in tricky areas.
• Skeletons and Inverse Kinematics (IK) – Characters can be rigged with custom skeletons using 3ds Max bones, IK solvers, and rigging tools.
  • All animation tools—including expressions, scripts, list controllers, and wiring—can be used along with a set of utilities specific to bones to build rigs of any structure and with custom controls, so animators see only the UI necessary to get their characters animated.
  • Four plug-in IK solvers ship with 3ds Max: history-independent solver, history-dependent solver, limb solver, and spline IK solver. These powerful solvers reduce the time it takes to create high-quality character animation. The history-independent solver delivers smooth blending between IK and FK animation and uses preferred angles to give animators more control over the positioning of affected bones.
  • The history-dependent solver can solve within joint limits and is used for machine-like animation. IK limb is a lightweight two-bone solver, optimized for real-time interactivity, ideal for working with a character arm or leg. Spline IK solver provides a flexible animation system with nodes that can be moved anywhere in 3D space. It allows for efficient animation of skeletal chains, such as a character’s spine or tail, and includes easy-to-use twist and roll controls.
• Integrated Cloth Solver – In addition to reactor’s cloth modifier, 3ds Max software has an integrated cloth-simulation engine that enables the user to turn almost any 3D object into clothing, or build garments from scratch. Collision solving is fast and accurate even in complex simulations.
  • Local simulation lets artists drape cloth in real time to set up an initial clothing state before setting animation keys.
  • Cloth simulations can be used in conjunction with other 3ds Max dynamic forces, such as Space Warps. Multiple independent cloth systems can be animated with their own objects and forces. Cloth deformation data can be cached to the hard drive to allow for nondestructive iterations and to improve playback performance.
• Integration with Autodesk Vault – Autodesk Vault plug-in, which ships with 3ds Max, consolidates users’ 3ds Max assets in a single location, enabling them to automatically track files and manage work in progress. Users can easily and safely share, find, and reuse 3ds Max (and design) assets in a large-scale production or visualization environment.

More Information

• Developed by Autodesk Inc.
• Latest release 2009 (11.0) / April 2008
• OS Windows (2000, XP or Vista)
• Type 3D computer graphics
• License Proprietary
• Website www.autodesk.com/3dsmax
• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3ds_Max

Continue reading »]]> Commercial 3D Software

3DS Max – Autodesk

• Originally called 3D Studio MAX. 3ds Max is used in many industries that utilize 3D graphics. It is used in the video game industry for developing models and creating cinema cut-scenes. It is used in architectural visualizations because it is highly compatible with AutoCAD–also developed by Autodesk. Additionally 3ds Max is used in film production, one contemporary film being Kaena: The Prophecy. With its price of around $3500 USD, it is one of the more expensive products in the market for this type of work. 3ds Max is available for Windows.

AC3D – Inivis

• AC3Dis another 3D modeling application that began in the 90′s on the Amiga platform. While it is used in a number of industries, MathWorks actively recommends it in many of their aerospace related articles due to price and compatibility. Additionally it is the first commercial 3D modeler to integrate full support for exporting models to the metaverse platform Second Life. AC3D is priced in the range of $79 USD and is available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. While AC3D does not feature its own renderer, it can generate output files for both RenderMan and POV-Ray among others.

Cinema 4D – MAXON

• Cinema 4D (MAXON) is a slightly lighter package than the others in its basic configuration. The software is claimed to be artist-friendly, and is designed with the less-technical user in mind. It has a lower initial entry cost due to a modular a-la-carte design for purchasing additional functions as users need them. For example, a module called BodyPaint allows artists to draw textures directly onto the surface of models. Originally developed for the Commodore Amiga, it is also available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

EIAS - EI Technology Group

• Electric Image Animation System (EI Technology Group) is a 3D animation and rendering package available on both Mac OS X and Windows. Mostly known for its rendering quality and rendering speed it does not include a built-in modeler. EIAS features the ability to handle very large polygon counts. Recently, the blockbuster film “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” and the Television hit “Lost” utilized the software. Priced about $795.00 USD.

Form-Z – autodessys, Inc.

• form-Z (autodessys, Inc.) is a general purpose solid/surface 3D modeler. Its primary usage is modeling, and it also features rendering and animation support. form-Z claims users involved in architecture, interior design, illustration, product design, and set design. Its default renderer uses the LightWorks rendering engine for raytracing and radiosity. form-Z also supports Plugins and Scripts and has rendering support via Next Limit’s Maxwell Renderer. It has Import/Export capabilities and was first released in 1991. It is currently available for both Mac OS X and Windows. The price for this software ranges from $1495-$2390USD based on output quality.
• Houdini (Side Effects Software) is used for visual effects, and character animation as well as used in Disney’s The Wild[5]. Houdini uses a nonstandard interface that it refers to as a “NODE system”. Commercial licenses of Houdini include unlimited copies of Side Effects Software’s hybrid micropolygon-raytracer renderer, Mantra, but Houdini also has built-in support for commercial renderers like Pixar’s RenderMan and mental ray. There are two versions of Houdini, Houdini Escape ($1,995 USD) and Houdini Master ($7,995 USD). For non-commercial users, Side Effects Software offers the free Houdini Apprentice personal learning edition, which places a small watermark on images, and Houdini Apprentice HD, a $99 USD package that does not watermark renders.
• LightWave 3D (NewTek), first developed for the Amiga, was originally bundled as part of the Video Toaster package and entered the market as a low cost way for TV production companies to create quality CG for their programming. It first gained public attention with its use in the TV series “Babylon 5″. Contemporary use in TV and movie production can be seen with the 2004 recreated Battlestar Galactica series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and the film 300 (film). It is priced at $795 USD and is available for both Windows and Mac OS X.
• LightWorks (LightWorkDesign) develops the LightWorks and LightWorks SE high quality 3D rendering toolkit predominantly used in Mechanical, Configuration and Architectural CAD applications. LightWorks has traditionally used ray tracing and radiosity algorithms, but more recently has incorporated Final gather and Global illumination algorithms. LightWorks is currently available for both Mac OS X and Windows on 32 and 64bit.
• Massive is a 3D animation system for generating crowd-related visual effects, targeted for use in film and television. Originally developed for controlling the large-scale CGI battles in the Lord of the Rings[10], Massive Software has become an industry standard for digital crowd control in high end animation. Recently, the software has been utilized for blockbuster feature films including Happy Feet, King Kong, and I, Robot. It is available for various Unix and Linux platforms as well as Windows.
• Maya (Autodesk) is currently used in the film and television industry. Maya has a high learning curve but has developed over the years into an application platform in and of itself through extendability via its MEL programming language. A common alternative to using the default built in rendering system named mental ray is Pixar’s Renderman. In 2005, Autodesk (makers of AutoCAD), acquired Alias–the original creator of Maya[11]. Maya comes in two versions: Maya Complete ($1999 USD) and Maya Unlimited ($6999 USD). There is also Maya Personal Learning Edition, which is for non-commercial use and puts watermarks on any rendered images.
• Modo (Luxology) is a subdivision modeling, texturing and rendering tool with support for camera motion and morphs / blendshapes. It is priced in the area of 895$ USD and is available for both Windows and Mac OS X.
• Relux Professional (Relux Informatik AG) is a basic modeling and rendering tool mostly used in the light planning industry. The physically correct renderings are based on photometric data and performed by an in-house radiosity engine. This tool is free of charge and allows access to photometric data of around 70 lighting manufacturers. A raytracer plug-in called “Vision” is also available and is priced at 405 Euro.
• Silo (Nevercenter) is a subdivision-surface modeler available for Mac OS X and Windows, with a Linux version in development. Silo does not include a renderer and is priced in the area of $109 USD. Silo is the bundled in modeler for the Electric Image Animation System suite.
• SketchUp Pro (Google) is a 3D modeling package that features a sketch-based modeling approach. It has a pro version which supports 2-D and 3-D model export functions among other features, which is currently priced at $495 USD. It also has a free version that is integrated with Google Earth and limits export to Google’s “3D Warehouse”, where users can share their content.
• Softimage|XSI (Avid) is feature-similar to Maya and is sold as a completive alternative. Prior to its acquisition by Avid, Softimage originally promoted the program (under the name Softimage 3D) for use in the video game industry and secured its promotion as part of the Nintendo N64 SDK. The newer Softimage XSI has additional features and integrates with mental ray rendering.
• solidThinking (solidThinking Ltd) is a 3D solid/surface modeling and rendering software which features a Construction Tree method of development. This is explained as the history of the model construction process allowes real-time updates when modifications are made to points, curves, parameters or entire objects. solidThinking is available in four versions: MODELER, MODELER XL, DESIGN, and VANTAGE.
• SolidWorks (SolidWorks Corporation) is a series of packages used mainly for virtual testing of a product. It includes modeling, assembly, drawing, sheetmetal, weldments, and freeform surfacing. It also has support for custom programming/scripting in Visual Basic and C. The licenses/packages are SolidWorks, SolidWorks Office, SolidWorks Office Professional, SolidWorks Office Premium, SolidWorks Student Design Kit, SolidWorks Education Edition, and SolidWorks Student Edition.
• trueSpace (Caligari Corporation) is another 3D program available for Windows, although the company Caligari first found its start on the Amiga platform. trueSpace features modeling, animation, 3D-painting, and rendering capabilities. It is priced in the range of $199 USD for Version 5.2 through $595 USD for Version 7 TrueSpace is now available for free download.
• ViewBuildUSA (VEC3D) is a 3D software package built on a gaming platform used primarily for modeling architecture.
• Vue 6 (E-on Software) Vue 6 is a tool for creating, animating and rendering natural 3D environments. It was most recently used to create the background jungle environments in the 2nd and 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean films.
• ZBrush (Pixologic) is a digital sculpting tool that combines 3D/2.5D modeling, texturing and painting tool available for Mac OS X and Windows. It is priced at $489 USD.

Free Open Source

Blender (Blender Foundation)

• 

  Blender is a free, open-source, 3D studio for animation, modeling, rendering, and texturing offering a feature set comparable to high end and mid range 3D animation suites such as Maya, 3ds Max, or Cinema 4D. It includes features such as multi-resolution sculpting; retopology painting. Additionally it supports 3D view texture painting; stack based modifier system; flexible particle system with particle based hair; cloth/soft body dynamics, rigid body dynamics and fluid simulation; node based texturing and node based compositing; an integrated non linear video editor; and integrated game engine. Blender is developed under the GPL and is available on all major platforms including Windows, OS X, Linux, BSD, Sun and Irix. It is currently the only 3D animation suite that is supported both on super computers as well as handheld computers such as the Pocket PC (Pocket Blender).

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