Autodesk 3ds Max is a legend in the 3D-animation community. It has been around for a long time and has done great things since its inception. This 3D animation software package is our TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award winner because it combines a great feature list with a focus on rapid content development. It has application in cinema and broadcast television content, but it is especially well equipped for game development. It works great for synthesizing large-scale projects, and it is highly modifiable and extensible.
This 3D modeling software is primarily based around polygon modeling. You can create a wide array of primitives, including cubes, cones, pyramids and teapots, to serve as bases for your models. 3ds Max supports subdivision surfaces as well, which makes your models look smoother. Like our other top-rated software options, 3ds Max comes with many different editing tools for manipulating your models. We especially like the Soft Selection tool, which allows you to grab vertex clouds and tug on them without creating unwanted geometry in your mesh – everything stays smooth.
If polygon and subdivision modeling aren't your style, use the sculpting brush. This tool allows you to work with your model the same way you might work with a lump of clay. Although this feature is somewhat limited – there are applications available that focus exclusively on this style of modeling – it can make the addition of detail much easier.
As an alternative to polygon and sculpting methods, you can also build NURBs models. This curve-based modeling method is perfect for creating smooth surfaces and is particularly useful in simulating mechanical parts where accuracy is essential.
Furthermore, 3ds Max is capable of photorealistic global illumination. This refers to a type of lighting that provides heightened detail to parts of an image that fall outside the reach of direct lights. To accomplish this, 3ds Max employs a simplified radiosity algorithms that simulate bouncing light. This is a computationally expensive operation, which makes it impractical for real-time light-rendering scenarios like video games, but it is ideal for rendering movies and broadcast television segments.
Naturally, 3ds Max is well equipped for creating video-game friendly textures with artificial lighting to compensate for the expense of real-time lighting. You can texture your models via the traditional UV texture maps and bump maps. Our favorite texturing tool is the less-conventional paintbrush, which allows you to paint directly onto your models like you would paint in Photoshop. This feature is highly advantageous if you are new to texturing because UV maps can be complicated and confusing to make external to the application. You have to be able to visualize your model as if it were unfolded, which isn't always intuitive.
The paint-on texture allows you to decorate and refine the model without having to skin it first. When you are done with your texture, you can choose the lighting settings and burn shadows and highlights into the texture. This technique helps optimize game speeds by reducing the need for lighting calculations – your model already has the appropriate shadows and highlights baked into the texture. So long as the lighting conditions in your game remain stable, your creatures will look fantastic without the computation required for rendering light.
To flesh out your character models, this 3D animation software simulates cloth, skin, hair and fur. These materials will give your creations a realistic and lifelike appearance. This application also simulates particles, which you can use to render clouds, explosions and other things like that.
Rigid body dynamics give this 3D animation software the ability to simulate hard materials like stone. You can also simulate and control shattering and breaking effects for these rigid materials. Unfortunately, 3ds Max no longer supports soft body dynamics, which makes the simulation of rubbery, deformable materials much harder to reproduce. You will have to figure out some other way to make that fat guy eating ice cream in a swimsuit appropriately jiggly.
This 3D animation software has full support for IK and FK, which is just a fancy way of saying that you can create skeletons that can push and pull. Put these skeletons inside a model and, viola! You have a character that is ready to animate. If you take your time rigging your model with facial controls, you can use the pose blender to help speed up the animation process down the road. The pose blender allows you to morph from position to position using a slider, and can be set up as a control over facial expressions or basic limb and hand movements.
You can create animation sequences in 3ds Max via scripts, keyframes and procedural animation. Like many other top-notch 3D animation software packages, you can create animation layers for better control of each scene. You can also apply motion-capture data to your characters for more lifelike movement patterns. Add multiple audio tracks to dub and choreograph your animation sequences.
One of 3ds Max's greatest strengths is the ability to extend features through downloadable plugins or homebrew modifications written in Python or MAXScript (the embedded language included with 3ds Max.) These plugins can drastically improve workflow and model-creation time.
In addition to these general features, 3ds Max comes with a host of task-specific features you should consider. For example, you can simulate mechanical parts for easily animated machines. Other such features include Time Warping and Stereoscopic rendering (for images viewable in 3D with glasses.) You will have to dig for a long time to find all the Easter eggs and functions available to you.
For flexibility, 3ds Max is designed to manage big projects that often require compatibility with many other types of software (which is part of the reason it makes such a good game-development tool), and it is easy to use once you know how. Additionally, 3ds comes with a fully customizable user interface, which helps the pros streamline their workspace and enhance productivity.
As with all Autodesk products, you can find much-needed tutorials online. The learning curve for 3ds Max is extremely steep, and it can be an intimidating and frustrating ordeal. If you need additional support, seek help from the online discussion groups or contact Autodesk via email.
Autodesk 3ds Max is one of the best options for your 3D animation software needs. If you are working on video games or movies, this application will serve you admirably. In the rare event that you should find it lacking in functionality, you can always download plugins to extend its capabilities.
