A popular nt-based modeling and animation solution, 3D Studio Max is about to explode out of the box with Version 2 a dizzying number of significant new features. The software is a product of San Rafael, California-based Kinetix, a wholly owned subsidiary of Autodesk, and hits the market in its new incarnation this fall. The 2.0 version of Max boasts no less than 1,000 new features to further expand the already flexible open-ended animation software used in video post and effects, animation, games development and cad visualization.

nurbs-based modeling, new rendering features, motion-capture features, dynamics, and new plug-ins for particles and lens flares included in the shipped product are cited by users and by the developer as being among the most significant upgrades for animators and video post practitioners.

To put its busloads of upgraded features into context, we asked those with experience working with the existing 1.2 version and the new upgrade to talk about what the Max 2 means in applied reality.

Glenn Wilson, applications engineering manager for Autodesk Canada, William Cameron, director and designer at Toronto’s TOPIX Computer Graphics and Animation, and Harvey Fong, technical director at Toronto’s Dan Krech Productions, discuss some of the head-turning and downright useful features of 3D Studio Max R2 and how the software is used in the post/animation/special effects environment.

As Wilson puts it, Studio Max is essentially a collection of plug-ins which allows users to incorporate third-party products and create custom features with the software developer’s kit shipped with the product; so a new scripting language, which allows users to create objects using simple ascii-based scripts, is a major new feature.

Wilson says the new scripting feature provides the capabilities of about 90% of the original software developer’s kit in a simple scripting language.

Fong also cites this feature as a significant upgrade: ‘The scripting allows you to customize things without doing low-level programming.’

Fong points to nurbs-ability as a feature that caught his eye when the new version was demonstrated at siggraph this year. nurbs – non-uniform rational B-Splines for those who simply need to know – facilitate modeling and interaction with complex surfaces.

‘Formerly we had only polygonal modeling and patch modeling,’ says Wilson. ‘Now we are providing the full circle with fully animatable nurbs so users have the ability to do wild, free-form objects that would have been difficult to do polygonally.’

The new version of Max also includes triple the number of tools to edit and modify objects. ‘Once users build their geometry, they now have more things to use to warp it, deform it or animate it,’ explains Wilson.

Wilson says those working in video have responded with enthusiasm to Max 2’s new rendering capabilities, ‘because when it comes down to it, what counts is what goes out on the screen.’

Among rendering upgrades are selective raytracing, which allows individual objects to be raytraced to provide perfect refractions and reflections. Cameron cites the new version’s renderer as ‘much nicer than the previous release.’

topix currently has five copies of Max 1.2 and plans to upgrade when the new software is shipped. Cameron says rendering in 3D Studio Max 2 is not only faster, but anti-aliasing is significantly better than in the current version. topix is using Max 2 on graphics work for chum’s new specialty, Space: The Imagination Station, for which Cameron is creating a ‘journey through our solar system’ and integrating 3D elements with the 2D logo designed by the station.

‘There are several ways to do convincing refractions, which is very much a feature of this new renderer,’ says Cameron, who created a pyramid-shaped space artifact for the Space project and used Max 2 to provide refraction and distortion of the background behind the object.

Wilson says the rendering features also include new material shaders for the creation of animal skins, water and the like, and improvements to the material editor make it easier to view materials and work with more materials at once. ‘You can now preview a complex material on the actual object you’re putting it on, so you can see things rendered out before final rendering is done,’ says Wilson.

Additional wow factors include the software’s new particle system, one of the integrated plug-ins in the new version. Wilson says the system facilitates the creation of particles, which can be deflected and immediately spun off into different types of particles, ‘so, very quickly someone could have a group of particles firing out as, for example, lights with a glow around them. And as soon as they hit another object they turn into flaming combustions, and then after 30 frames, they turn into little puffs of smoke and then disappear and come back to life as sparks.’

The particle system incorporates a technology originally from Texas software developer Sisyphus. Kinetix purchased the system for inclusion out-of-the-box in Max 2.

Cameron says the particle system is being employed in the creation of spacescapes for his specialty channel project.

Kinetix also purchased the code for Digimation’s Lens Effects, also included in Max 2, which means the product will be shipped with capability for lens flares, glows and gaseous effects.

The out-of-the-box features are in addition to the other plug-ins that can be added by users as needed.

‘The whole ideology of the software is that it is very open to third-party developers to create their own things, whether it’s modeling algorithms or particle systems or post processing effects,’ says Cameron.

At dkp, which uses the current version of Max, Fong is gearing up for the new version. He also cites the open-ended nature of the software as an advantage.

‘You can buy a $700 plug-in and do hypermatter or nice hair or motion, you don’t have to pay for them up front like you do in other animation software,’ says Fong. ‘It’s like you’re paying on a per job basis. And because it’s on an nt platform, if you’re looking for a certain effect, it’s likely someone’s written it because of the sheer number of users working on pcs.’

Like topix, dkp runs a comprehensive array of sgi and nt-based software in its high-end digital imaging facility, and Fong says the shop is looking at Max 2 to augment its current lineup and perhaps for pipelining between packages.

Fong says a package he spied at siggraph, Movetools from Lambsoft, the software development arm of Minneapolis-based Lamb & Co. Visual Effects, would potentially allow movement between scenes created in Alias and Softimage and 3D Studio Max. ‘It would be great to bridge things, for example, where you animate a character in Softimage then do a hair plug-in in 3D Studio Max and render hair out separately and comp it together. So you’re using the best features of each program.’

An additional Max 2 development is support for realtime motion capture for joystick, mouse and Midi/keyboard devices. ‘You can now use all these basic motion-capture input devices and record in realtime as opposed to keying in manually,’ says Wilson.

Regarding future motion-capture developments, Wilson says the natural progression will be for third parties to create motion-capture solutions which employ desktop ‘monkey’-based systems or motion-capture suits. ‘You’ll probably see within a month or so people with motion-capture suits doing real-time motion capture into Max,’ he says.

3D Studio Max 2 will be available this fall and will be priced at us$3,495 ($4,823Cdn) or us$795 ($1,097Cdn.) for an upgrade from version 1, 1.1 or 1.2.