3ds Max 8 release
Posted: August 04, 2005
Post subject: 3ds Max 8 release
Post subject: 3ds Max 8 release
SAN RAFAEL, Calif.—August 1, 2005—Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), today announced Autodesk 3ds Max 8 software, the latest version of its award winning 3D modeling, animation and rendering solution. Designed to provide the most comprehensive and advanced 3D design tools and pipeline workflow, 3ds Max is one of the industry’s most popular solutions for games production, film and video production and design visualization.
"There are four specific areas of focus we are invested in for 3ds Max 8 that will address the present and future demands of increasingly complex 3D production environments,” said Martin Vann, vice president of worldwide sales, marketing and support, Autodesk, Inc. “Those areas are Character Development, Advanced Modeling & Texturing, More Comprehensive Development Framework and Complex Data and Asset Management (dealing with scalability, collaboration and scene complexity)," added Vann.
"After we signed on to create the STAR WARS: Empire at War game for Lucas Arts, there was no question of which 3D software package to build this game title on. 3ds Max provides us with the best production-proven toolset for our game development goals,” said Gary Cox, Art Director at Petroglyph. “We consistently hit our milestones with 3ds Max. After several months of testing 3ds Max 8, we anticipate even more productivity gains with the wealth of enhanced creative tools and workflow efficiencies."
3ds Max 8 will offer 3D artists advanced Character Development features into its fully integrated character animation toolset with advanced rigging tools, motion mixing and motion retargeting (non-linear animation). Modeling & Texturing advancements include new UV pelt mapping that greatly decreases the time and labor required to accurately texture a 3D model, DirectX and .fx support to create real time shaders inside the 3ds Max viewport.
Game development studios, visual effects/post-production facilities, and design visualization professionals require 3D tools that can scale to manage rapidly expanding data sets and bandwidth/interaction requirements. 3ds Max 8 will answer these needs with a Comprehensive Development Framework that delivers improved software developer kit (SDK) tools and documentation, XML support that efficiently exchanges scene and animation data, an interactive MAXScript debugger, and support for the Autodesk DWF Viewer, the free, downloadable application that offers review and approval collaboration for 3D data.
3D animation projects today are becoming increasingly complex—especially with artists working in multiple locations and geographies. 3ds Max 8 will deliver Complex Data and Asset Management advancements with continued connectivity to third-party, industry-standard asset management systems; and by integrating Autodesk Vault, a full-featured data management and asset tracking solution.
Features released exclusively to Autodesk Subscription clients over the past year—including Cloth, Hair and Fur, mental ray 3.4 and eight satellite render nodes—along with an extensive collection of visualization features compatible with Autodesk VIZ 2006, including enhanced File Link, Autodesk Inventor import, radiosity and adaptive subdivision—will automatically be included in 3ds Max 8. Autodesk Subscription continues to deliver incredible value to its members.
For a complete list of new 3ds Max 8 features, please visit: http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax.
"On previous projects, like Mr. & Mrs. Smith, 3ds Max has given us the tools we need to deliver the level of work that the directors and studios expect from us,” said Jason Crosby, CG Supervision, Digital Dimension. With features like the new MAXScript Debugger and improved integration with mental ray 3.4, version 8 is going to make our jobs easier."
“3ds Max 8 will further extend our leadership in delivering leading creative tools that address the complexities of CG pipelines,” said Marc Petit, VP Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “During the past year, Autodesk has stepped up its investment in 3D animation product development as well as support for its customers and partners. We are proud that this investment is being met with enthusiastic response from our 3ds Max 8 Beta testers.”
3ds Max 8 will be demonstrated in the Autodesk booth, # 1700, at SIGGRAPH, taking place August 1-4 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
"There are four specific areas of focus we are invested in for 3ds Max 8 that will address the present and future demands of increasingly complex 3D production environments,” said Martin Vann, vice president of worldwide sales, marketing and support, Autodesk, Inc. “Those areas are Character Development, Advanced Modeling & Texturing, More Comprehensive Development Framework and Complex Data and Asset Management (dealing with scalability, collaboration and scene complexity)," added Vann.
"After we signed on to create the STAR WARS: Empire at War game for Lucas Arts, there was no question of which 3D software package to build this game title on. 3ds Max provides us with the best production-proven toolset for our game development goals,” said Gary Cox, Art Director at Petroglyph. “We consistently hit our milestones with 3ds Max. After several months of testing 3ds Max 8, we anticipate even more productivity gains with the wealth of enhanced creative tools and workflow efficiencies."
3ds Max 8 will offer 3D artists advanced Character Development features into its fully integrated character animation toolset with advanced rigging tools, motion mixing and motion retargeting (non-linear animation). Modeling & Texturing advancements include new UV pelt mapping that greatly decreases the time and labor required to accurately texture a 3D model, DirectX and .fx support to create real time shaders inside the 3ds Max viewport.
Game development studios, visual effects/post-production facilities, and design visualization professionals require 3D tools that can scale to manage rapidly expanding data sets and bandwidth/interaction requirements. 3ds Max 8 will answer these needs with a Comprehensive Development Framework that delivers improved software developer kit (SDK) tools and documentation, XML support that efficiently exchanges scene and animation data, an interactive MAXScript debugger, and support for the Autodesk DWF Viewer, the free, downloadable application that offers review and approval collaboration for 3D data.
3D animation projects today are becoming increasingly complex—especially with artists working in multiple locations and geographies. 3ds Max 8 will deliver Complex Data and Asset Management advancements with continued connectivity to third-party, industry-standard asset management systems; and by integrating Autodesk Vault, a full-featured data management and asset tracking solution.
Features released exclusively to Autodesk Subscription clients over the past year—including Cloth, Hair and Fur, mental ray 3.4 and eight satellite render nodes—along with an extensive collection of visualization features compatible with Autodesk VIZ 2006, including enhanced File Link, Autodesk Inventor import, radiosity and adaptive subdivision—will automatically be included in 3ds Max 8. Autodesk Subscription continues to deliver incredible value to its members.
For a complete list of new 3ds Max 8 features, please visit: http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax.
"On previous projects, like Mr. & Mrs. Smith, 3ds Max has given us the tools we need to deliver the level of work that the directors and studios expect from us,” said Jason Crosby, CG Supervision, Digital Dimension. With features like the new MAXScript Debugger and improved integration with mental ray 3.4, version 8 is going to make our jobs easier."
“3ds Max 8 will further extend our leadership in delivering leading creative tools that address the complexities of CG pipelines,” said Marc Petit, VP Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “During the past year, Autodesk has stepped up its investment in 3D animation product development as well as support for its customers and partners. We are proud that this investment is being met with enthusiastic response from our 3ds Max 8 Beta testers.”
3ds Max 8 will be demonstrated in the Autodesk booth, # 1700, at SIGGRAPH, taking place August 1-4 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Posted: August 04, 2005
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* Skinning— Skin your most sophisticated and dense characters and models. Vertices are now assigned to a bone by default to prevent unwanted stretching and minimize the need to edit envelopes.
* Asset Management—Share, control, and manage your work-in-progress assets using Asset Tracker, our new source control solution, tightly integrated with Autodesk® Vault and compatible with existing asset management solutions.
* Pelt Mapping—Control unfolding of UV seams with pelt mapping. Create a flat, unified map for texturing your objects by stretching out UVW coordinates. Relax UVs and remove distortion by accurately matching UVs to object geometry. Save tremendous amounts of time and hours of work since seams are exactly where they should be and rarely—if ever—need adjusting afterwards.
* Motion Capture—Motion capture formats now include HTR Import and Export support for 3ds Max bones and TRC data import. Import standard motion capture formats directly into 3ds Max to drive your character, facial, and Biped® animation.
* Motion Data Format—Load and save animation using our new XML-based motion data types. This allows you to save, load, map, and retarget animation between characters. Repurpose animation between rigs of varying sizes, proportions, and design. Break down retargeted motions into component parts to repurpose portions of the original animation for reuse.
* Animation Motion Mixer—No longer limited to Biped motions, use the Motion Mixer to mix, edit, trim, filter, time warp, and transition motions from any 3ds Max animation.
* Biped Improvements—Use true Euler rotation and Bezier positioning curves to edit Biped motions.
* Maxscript—Build Maxscripts faster with our Maxscript debugger. This debugger follows industry standards and allows you to break into your script’s code and isolate any issues in your scripts. Expression controllers now have full MXS support.
* Hair and Fur— Previously available only to 3ds Max subscription members, hair and fur capabilities are now built right into 3ds Max. Based on Joe Alter’s highly regarded “Shave and a Haircut” solution, Hair and Fur offers numerous styling and dynamics tools for creating amazingly realistic hair and other strand-derivative effects.
* mental ray 3.4—Run medium-sized render farms right out of the box. mental ray® 3.4 rendering solution delivers numerous optimizations, including faster final gathering performance, double precision computation for ray tracing and fast rasterization for first-generation rays. mental ray 3.4 also adds Satellite Rendering, to allow 3ds Max license owners to freely use up to eight slave CPUs to render an image using distributed bucket rendering.
* Cloth—delivers a sophisticated cloth simulation system that gives artists the creative tools to build realistic, film-quality clothing for characters. Turn modeled geometry into cloth, or design or import clothing patterns and stitch them together to design full garments.