Will 3ds max go away some day?

[Dave Black]

3DStudio Max as you know it today started as 3dstudio, which was a dos based animation package. It had little resemblance to what you see now.

The "Max" part denotes the transition to the windows 95 operating platform.

It has roots that go way back to the 80's(even some to the 70's).

All those names you see in Max are actually the mathematitions and scientists that pioneered the shading algorythims that we use all the time.

The teapot is a direct copy of the first object ever rendered in 3D.

As for Max's future, it will be just fine. It's the #1 selling 3D program in the world. Though used little in movies, it really has a huge base in videogames and multimedia.

I'm not going to start an argument as to what is the best package, but I will say that Max has covered enough ground, and continues to inovate(sometimes by stealing ideas) and will be around until it's dethroned by something else.

Hope that helps a bit.

-3DZ

:D

[magicm]

here's a screenshot of 3d studio release 4, which was released around mid nineties;

[Dave Black]

Woot!

Talk about old school!!!

Cool screenshot, man.

-3DZ

:D

[E.T]

I had that one!!!:thumbsup:
Brings back memories of not understanding anything and still being totally happy. "look its 3d!"

[CTRL+X]

Yea I remember that old DOS version,, wish the modern version of MAX was as fast and crash free like that old DOS version.


I don't think the teapot was the first rendered object, I may be wrong but I think an architectual structure rendered by a team out of berkley was the first 3D rendering ( I may be wrong, and what does it matter really??)

[erilaz]

The name may change again one day (3d Studio -> 3d studio max, Softimage -> XSI etc.), but I think the program itself will be around for years to come.

[mouj]

howdy !

as to when will it end if it ends, i could not answer at all but "please not now" : )
but regarding the "when did it all start", and not pretending this is the answer, i stumbled upon this some time ago

http://www.asterius.com/atari/index

it reads somewhere on the home page:
"This Web site documents some moderately obscure computer graphics software history: a suite of animation products produced in the late 1980's for the Atari ST personal computer platform. Although the fact is not widely known, this Atari software, published by a defunct computer magazine called Antic, directly preceded and led to the Autodesk 3D Studio and Discreet 3ds max products used by thousands of people today."

and it's fun to read as well !

mouj

[jimcoldt]

I remember 3dstudio Dos v.1.0

I used to run it on a 486 machine with a 125mb harddrive

I think I still have it on a set of 8 floppies.

I believe the highest it rendered was 640x480, but I could be wrong....

[Xilica]

i think 3ds max will continue to evolve into a different name however be pretty much the same base program

[plaguelord]

I lost a new maxtor hard drive of 850mb (yes, MegaBytes), when I try to render an animation of lots of metal chains with a reflective material. After 14 hours of render, and some strange sounds inside mi 486dx4 100mhz, the drive make a suicide...

Long live to 3dstudio!!!

[BrandonD]

Actually I think 3ds DOS debuted as R1 in 1991. 3ds MAX R1 shipped in March of 1996, R2 in summer 1997, R2.5 not long afterward, R3 in 1999, etc.

As mentioned earlier, there was a major paradigm shift with MAX. Development started in 1993 when WindowsNT was released, with the intent of leveraging the power of new object oriented programming techniques. This led to a more procedural tool built around a massive plugin framework. When MAX R1 shipped in 1996 I think it was the first major 3d app on NT and with an all encompassing plugin architecture. Maya was a few years later in late 1998 or early 1999 ;)

Right now as it stands, MAX has matured quite well. In fact when you look at the first version it seems hardly recognizeable (beyond the UI). Where it will go next? That's anybody's guess. I'd expect it to become even more procedural like Houdini, but without the overhead.

[SuperMax]

The heaven and earth will go away but Max will be here for ever.

3dsMax will be laid to rest shortley BUT dont worry.


SuperMax will replace it


Brace Yourselves!:eek:

[jadedchron]

you say it's used little in movies.. does that mean i should stop where i'm at with max (newbie) and start with maya/lightwave if i have movie aspirations?

[Dave Black]

Just concentrate on being the best artisit you can, and keep Max.

I'm only speaking from my experiences. Alias/Wavefront Maya and XSI are, IMHO, what are used most in movies. But don't forget, that that's just the off-the-shelf animation packages. Most of the bigger studios use whatever is best for the shot. Sometimes that means LW,XSI,Maya, 3DSMax, or whatever. But when those programs fall short, they write their own, or use software they have talored to meet their needs.

If you wanna work in movies, my advice would be to learn 'em all pretty well, and just concentrate on your art.

But that's just my opinion. Take it for what it's worth.

-3DZ

:D

[jadedchron]

thanks.. there's not too many big differences between max and maybe maya right? i mean it'd be fairly doable to port over to maya if you know alot thru max? right? :-)

[BrandonD]

First off, just because you know MAX doesn't exclude you from working on movies. In fact, I've worked on close to a dozen films in the last five years using MAX. Now as for studios that use MAX in films, that's a different story, but if you know MAX and have a good reel you won't necessarily be excluded. I'm at Digital Domain right now working in Houdini, but my reel is all MAX.

As for the differences and similarities, MAX has many of each with Maya. MAX is at the core more like Houdini in that it's built around a procedural paradigm (modifier stack and animation controllers). But the way it works with objects, scripting, lighting, etc is very much like Maya.

Personally I think knowing both MAX and Maya couldn't hurt. In fact, those are two of the most popular apps. And just remember, 3d apps are like foreign languages - learn one really well and the rest come easier.

[jadedchron]

thanks

[Gonzo The Great]

Hey! Thanks for that screen-shot man. I actually made a film with version 3 and 4 of that software. And 60 second television spot (involving IK characters too!)

I repaired a broken HDD I found laying around a train-station out of boredom as a kid. And on it was good old 3ds4dos. Couldn't believe it.

Those days it was fun. MAX has lost all charm.

[Reality3D]

By the way, it's not 3D studio Max but 3DS MAX :)
In the future maybe 3D MAX or ... Lava ? 8)

[Gonzo The Great]

Or how about: "discreet Inferior 3D R6"

[Matt-Clark]

Originally posted by CTRL+X

I don't think the teapot was the first rendered object, I may be wrong but I think an architectual structure rendered by a team out of berkley was the first 3D rendering ( I may be wrong, and what does it matter really??)

Here's the history of the teapot we all know and love:

http://sjbaker.org/teapot/

[{-=Jaxx=-}]

It is used in alot of movies (dating back from 1995-Dont know if it has been used earlier than that im guessing it lists the good films only?)and games for that matter just take a look at the link and i think you can decide for yourself the quality of the movies it is used in...

http://www.discreet.com/products/3dsmax/3dsmax_visualeffects.html#

And click top 3ds max films

[MFreywald]

Originally posted by mouj
howdy !

as to when will it end if it ends, i could not answer at all but "please not now" : )
but regarding the "when did it all start", and not pretending this is the answer, i stumbled upon this some time ago

http://www.asterius.com/atari/index

it reads somewhere on the home page:
"This Web site documents some moderately obscure computer graphics software history: a suite of animation products produced in the late 1980's for the Atari ST personal computer platform. Although the fact is not widely known, this Atari software, published by a defunct computer magazine called Antic, directly preceded and led to the Autodesk 3D Studio and Discreet 3ds max products used by thousands of people today."

and it's fun to read as well !

mouj


I actually had this software on my Atari ST. The 3D editor / renderer was CAD-3D. The 2D animator was Cyber Paint. All written by Tom Hudson who is also one of the founding members of the Yost group to which we owe the existance of 3D Studio. I remember when I ran the DOS version how much it resembled CAD-3D just much much much more powerfull. It didn't surprise me to find out Tom Hudson was on the original team.

[Apoclypse]

I hope that discreet changes the name with the next version and knowing discreet's naming convention you can be sure it will have something to do with fire.\

Hopefully, max will never go away ( i've been n this forum since it began i think, and a lot of you guys probbly have seen me rip on discreet and max but that is only becuase i love the app so much and want it to be the best and right now its not.)

[ostov]

What would u guys want it to be called in ver 6?
This post should live long!!!

ostov:scream:

[DIMO]

I would suggest 3ds bugs
Since with every version more bugs went into it

[Apoclypse]

I would suggest 3ds whole in your pocket while discreet street sweeps behind you. But i think that's to long. I personnaly would suggest luna or something or magma. But i think in terms of marketing discreet might want to keep 3ds somewhere in the title lest someone doesn't recognize the app.

[jadedchron]

magma :D

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