3D Studio Max
3D Studio Max (sometimes called 3ds Max or just MAX) is a 3-dimensional vector graphics and animation program, written by Kinetix (a division of Autodesk). It was developed as a successor to 3D Studio for DOS, but for the Win32 platform. Kinetix was later merged with Autodesk's latest acquisition, Discreet Logic. The current version of 3DS Max as of October 2003 is 6.
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3ds Max is perhaps the most widely-used 3D software today for several reasons, namely its Microsoft Windows platform, its ubiquitous plugin architecture, and its low cost relative to other commercial software, while still offering powerful editing capabilities. Professional 3D artists often use 3D Studio Max as a way to work at home on home user machines, where high power workstations like those made by Silicon Graphics, are cost prohibitive.
Some previous versions required a special copy protection device to be plugged into the parallel port while the program was run. Due to the risk of people sharing the copy protection device (if the people don't use the program at the same time), a software copy protection method was implemented instead. Registration involving personal information such as name, address and e-mail address is now required. The current version can be difficult to install due to serious bugs in the software copy protection which prevents many legitimite would-be users from running the software.
Currently 3ds Max is rising to the top with advanced features. In the newest version 6.0, Discreet Mental Ray is included. This is the second advanced renderer included in 3ds Max. Version 5.0 also had advanced lighting. Advanced lighting included Radiosity and Light Tracer. These was very usable, and they was not so far behind professional rendering systems such as Final-Render, Brazil r/s or V-ray.
3d Studio also includes Havok Reactor 2.0. This is a very powerful solution for realistic dynamic simulation.
Besides the powerful tools, 3ds Max has an intuitive user interface that is easier to use than those found in other 3d software products.
There are 4 basic modeling methods:
This is basic method. The point is that one is modeling something only with boxes, spheres, cones, cylynders. One can also subtract, cut, connect primitives together. For example, one can make two spheres which will work as blobs that will connect with each other. This is called "blob-mesh modeling," or "balloon modeling."
NURMS stands for Non-Uniformal Rational MeshSmooth.
This is the 3ds Max implementation of subdivision surface modelling, a methodology that is rapidly displacing NURBS modeling as the methodology of choice for both low- and high-polygon modelling. Point of this method is modeling with polygons(in 3d studio max you are working with editable mesh, or editable poly). After creating approximate model with polygons you apply meshsmooth. Advantage of NURMS meshsmooth is that every vertex and edge has its own weight. Weight symbolizes how much will the final shape affected by that vertex/edge.
NURMS modeling is less complicated than spline modeling, and can serve very well to not so professional users, while providing excellent scalability and control to skilled and experienced artists.
One weakness of 3ds max's subdivision surface implementation is that the entire mesh is explicitly tesellated to the same degree at render time, as opposed to 'true' sub-D's, which subdivide only the necessary portions of the model and/or adaptively change subdivision amounts across the model or from frame to frame
Surface tool was originally a plugin, but Kinetix bought it for version 3.0. The surface tool is for creating common 3ds max's splines, and then applying a modifier called "surface." This modifier makes a surface from every 3 or 4 vertices in a grid.
NURBS stands for Non-Uniformal Rational B-Splines.
See: NURBS
Scanline rendering is 3ds Max's default. Max's scanline renderer is fairly robust compared to similar packages' out-of-box offerings (Lightwave's default renderer being an exception). While several advanced features have been piggy-backed onto the scanliner over the years, such as global illumination, radiosity and ray tracing, advanced users may wish to consider using one of the many 3rd-party renderers available for Max, or make use of the somewhat limited connection to mental ray. A 3rd-party connection tool to Renderman pipelines is also available for those that need to integrate Max into Renderman shops.Overview
Modeling with primitives
NURMS
Surface tool
NURBS