Autodesk 3ds Max software provides powerful, integrated 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and compositing capabilities that enable artists to quickly ramp up for production. For even greater value, purchase 3ds Max as part of the Autodesk 3ds Max Entertainment Creation Suite Standard or Premium, and expand your creative capabilities with a range of specialized productivity-enhancing toolsets at a significant cost saving.
Unleash Your Creativity
Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 software delivers inspiring new creative toolsets, enhanced iterative workflows, and an accelerated graphics core that together help increase overall productivity.
Whether you're looking to create differentiated 3D assets for games, compelling broadcast graphics for television, or stunning visual effects for the latest box office attraction, Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 software provides a comprehensive, integrated 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and compositing solution that enables you to better handle the conflicting demands of shrinking deadlines and increasing consumer expectations for quality.
XBR--the Next Steps
3ds Max 2012 forges ahead with the next steps in the Excalibur (XBR) initiative to revitalize the software at its core. Engineered to provide dramatic improvements in performance and visual quality, the new Nitrous viewport system takes advantage of GPUs and multi-core workstations to deliver a smoother, more responsive workflow, while the render-quality display environment helps drive better creative decisions in the context of your final output. 3ds Max 2012 also introduces the MassFX unified system of simulation solvers, and delivers its first module: mRigids rigid-body dynamics, offering access to the power of the multi-threaded NVIDIA PhysX engine directly in the 3ds Max viewport.
Rendering Redefined
Incorporating some of the most innovative recent software advances in the industry, 3ds Max 2012 continues to reach new milestones in the Rendering Revolution. Case in point: the newly integrated iray rendering technology from mental images that enables you to get more predictable, photo-real results without worrying about rendering settings--similar to a 'point-and-shoot' camera. With new support for Vector Displacement Maps, you can use mental ray renderer or iray to render complex high-resolution details created in Autodesk Mudbox software on low-resolution geometry.
Better Results, Faster
Whether you're creating textures or UV maps, or adding finishing touches to geometry, 3ds Max 2012 offers new and enhanced features that will help you create higher-quality results in less time. Like the new library of 80 Substance procedural textures, with dynamically editable and animatable parameters, or the new Least Squares Conformal Mapping method for creating UVW maps, which preserves local angles of the mesh faces in order to help minimize texture distortion. New sculpting and painting workflows help you achieve your creative vision faster. What's more, with new single-step interoperability with other products in the Autodesk 3ds Max Entertainment Creation Suites 2012, you can more easily access the best tools for the task at hand.
Key New Features in Autodesk 3ds Max 2012
Nitrous-accelerated graphics core.
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Nitrous Accelerated Graphics Core
Experience dramatic improvements in performance and visual quality with the new Nitrous viewport system. Nitrous takes advantage of accelerated GPUs and multi-core workstations to enable you to iterate faster and handle larger data sets. The render-quality display environment supports unlimited lights, soft shadows, screen-space ambient occlusion, tone-mapping, and higher-quality transparency.
Substance procedural textures. View larger.
Substance Procedural Textures
Achieve a vast range of look variations with a new library of 80 Substance procedural textures. These dynamic, resolution-independent textures can be exported to certain games engines via the Substance Air middleware offering (available separately from Allegorithmic SAS), or converted to bitmaps for rendering.
Rigid body dynamics. View larger.
mRigids Rigid-Body Dynamics
Create more compelling static, dynamic, and kinematic rigid-body simulations directly in the 3ds Max viewport. The first module of the new MassFX unified system of simulation solvers, mRigids takes advantage of the multi-threaded NVIDIA PhysX engine to enable you to quickly create a wide range of highly-realistic dynamic simulations, or randomly place geometry within a scene.
Integrated iray rendering technology. View larger.
iray Renderer
Creating realistic images is easier with 3ds Max, using the newly integrated iray rendering technology from mental images. iray enables you to set up your scene using real-world materials and lighting, press 'render', and get more predictable, photo-real results without worrying about rendering settings.
Single-step suites interoperability. View larger.
Single-Step Suites Interoperability
Take advantage of the focused toolsets in the Autodesk 3ds Max Entertainment Creation Suites 2012, with new single-step interoperability between 3ds Max and Mudbox 2012, Autodesk MotionBuilder 2012 software, and the Autodesk Softimage 2012 software's Interactive Creation Environment (ICE).
Enhanced UVW unwrapping. View larger.
Enhanced UVW Unwrapping
Create better UVW maps in less time, with a new Least Squares Conformal Mapping (LSCM) method, enhancements to existing tools, and more streamlined workflows. Employed in a new 'Peel' tool, the new method produces unwrapped UVWs from cut seams with a single click.
Vector Displacement Map Support
With new support for Vector Displacement Maps (VDMs) in 3ds Max, you can use mental ray or iray rendering technology to render complex high-resolution details created in Mudbox 2012 or certain other applications on low-resolution geometry. VDMs can represent directional displacements that do not simply follow the normal.
Sculpting and painting enhancements.
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Sculpting and Painting Enhancements
Enjoy greater control over brushstrokes and their effects on geometry, thanks to new sculpting and painting workflows. Some highlights: a new Conform brush guides geometry towards another surface; new Transform brushes enable you to slide vertices along target surfaces; and Paint Deform brushstrokes can now be constrained to a spline for use as a guide or ruler.
Stylistic rendering. View larger.
Stylistic Rendering
Use a variety of non-photorealistic (NPR) effects that help simulate artistic styles (such as graphite pencil or acrylic ink), with the new ability to render stylized images in the viewport and with the Quicksilver renderer.
ProOptimizer enhancements. View larger.
ProOptimizer Enhancements
You can now optimize models faster, more efficiently, and with better results, using the enhanced ProOptimizer feature. It offers normal and UV interpolation, with the ability to keep high-resolution normals on the low-resolution result.
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Autodesk 3ds Max Entertainment Creation Suites 2012
The Autodesk 3ds Max Entertainment Creation Suites 2012 deliver powerful 3D modeling and animation technology in a choice of software suites at a significant cost saving*. The Standard suite includes 3ds Max together with MotionBuilder real-time character animation software, and Mudbox digital sculpting and 3D painting software. With the Premium option, get additional access to the innovative creative toolsets in Autodesk Softimage software.
Top Reasons to Buy Autodesk 3ds Max
1. Out-of-the-Box Productivity
Autodesk 3ds Max software offers powerful, easy to use, out-of-the-box capabilities for creating professional quality 3D animation. From Graphite modeling and CAT advanced character rigging, to the powerful Particle Flow system, 3ds Max helps you focus on creativity without compromise. Moreover, the Nitrous accelerated graphics core helps provide dramatic improvements in performance and visual quality--so you handle larger data sets, iterate faster, and make better creative decisions in context.
2. Robust Modeling/Texturing Tools
Well known for its extensive polygon modeling and texturing toolset, 3ds Max features Graphite, an extensive 3D modeling toolset. Graphite combines freeform sculpting, texture painting, and advanced polygonal modeling with a highly efficient user interface. Powerful tools such as Object Paint provide parametric replication of objects in a scene while model optimization is made easy with ProOptimizer.
3. Unbelievable Photorealism
When every pixel matters, professionals turn to the powerful tools in 3ds Max for lighting, shading, and rendering. Achieving a realistic look has never been easier with 1,200 real-world Autodesk Materials to select from, while 80 new Substance procedural textures provide a vast range of look variations. What's more, creating and editing complex materials is as simple as drag-and-drop with the intuitive Slate schematic material editor.
4. Dynamics and Effects
From the powerful, event-based Particle Flow system, to the integrated Hair, Fur, and Cloth systems, 3ds Max helps you bring more realistic dynamic motion to your scenes. And now, you can take advantage of the multi-threaded NVIDIA PhysX engine to create more compelling, dynamic rigid-body simulations directly in the 3ds Max viewport with mRigids. Rigid- and soft-body simulations can even be used on the bones of a character to cause it to fall naturally down a flight of stairs, or with the ProCutter tool to create explosive effects.
5. A Rendering Revolution
3ds Max continues to revolutionize the world of rendering, giving you a vast array of options that help you create stunning images faster than ever before. With unlimited integrated mental ray Batch rendering software, a traditional scan-line renderer, the Quicksilver GPU renderer, and the newly integrated iray "point-and-shoot" rendering technology from mental images, you can make creative decisions faster than ever. For even more options, choose from a constantly evolving list of third-party rendering plug-ins.
6. Animation Made Easy
Creating sophisticated, believable, character animation is made easier with 3ds Max. You can rig characters more quickly with CAT and use CAT Muscle and the Skin modifier for more precise control of realistic body deformations. Animate CAT, Biped, and 3ds Max objects more easily using layered motion capture data while preserving the underlying animation keyframes. Creatively sequence, blend and mix animation clips using the intuitive NLA system, MotionMixer, with biped or other animated object types.
7. Improved Pipeline Efficiency
Use 3ds Max Containers to create and manage large, complex scenes and collaborate with others more effectively. Move 3D assets through your pipeline more efficiently with Autodesk FBX exchange technology. Exchange data with over 30 2D and 3D data formats, including Autodesk DWG exchange technology, XML, FBX, OBJ and SAT. Take advantage of the latest development tools, including C# and .NET, to customize and extend your 3ds Max pipelines.
8. A Global Community
Available in six languages and used by hundreds of thousands of professionals around the world, 3ds Max enjoys a strong, vibrant community. So, whether you're a facility looking to hire or a student looking for your first job, your search is made easier with 3ds Max. And the extensive 3ds Max online community, including AREA, provides an invaluable resource for anyone looking for some expert advice for a challenging project.
9. Powerful Partners
Enjoy the ability to extend and tailor 3ds Max to meet your specific production needs through Autodesk's extensive network of development partners. Autodesk collaborates with the best and brightest in the industry to spearhead continued technological innovation in 3D so that 3ds Max customers have access to the widest range of cutting-edge hardware and software tools possible.
10. Simple Customization with MAXScript
With the MAXScript built-in scripting language, you can more easily customize aspects of your 3ds Max toolset including: modeling, animation, materials, and rendering. Create custom import/export tools using the built-in file I/O and write procedural controllers that can access the entire state of the scene, or build batch-processing tools--the possibilities are endless.
11. Learning Resources
From the first-class Autodesk training and documentation that comes with 3ds Max, to the breadth of partner and third-party books, DVDs, tutorials and training facilities, there are numerous resources to match anyone's learning style. Tap into one of the largest online communities of 3D professionals and enthusiasts to share information and knowledge.
