Autodesk 3DS MAX

Note : This page has been translated into English from French by a machine translation tool

Do you want to get into 3D modeling and animation, whether for pleasure or for your professional activity ? Are you looking for a versatile software that will allow you to format and animate all your creations? If this is the case, you may also be looking for the answer to the question “What is the best software for this type of task ? If this answer probably doesn’t exist, we can on the other hand evoke the tools that are among the best, the most complete or the most used. So how can we talk about it without talking about Autodesk 3DS MAX ?

3DS MAX is a 3D modeling and animation software created in 1990 and developed by Autodesk. As for the other flagship products of the famous software publisher, it is available in individual licenses but is also included in the Autodesk Software suites Media & Entertainment Collection, Product Design & Manufacturing Collection and Architecture, Engineering & Construction Collection. It is only available in a version compatible with the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Autodesk 3DS MAX provides you with modeling and formatting tools to create detailed objects, environments, and characters. But creating objects or characters is only a first step and one of the important criteria to judge the quality of a 3D rendering work is undoubtedly the realism of materials and movements. Thus, thanks to 3DS MAX, you can create a whole range of elements such as fluids or hair, give them an organic look and animate them realistically. Among the features, you can also simulate moving crowds and get ready-to-use frame models. These various models are a base that you can use to add textures to simulate skin for example and move your characters according to your needs.

Autodesk 3DS MAX supports the OSL language (see our OSL shaders article for more information), allowing you to embed OSL textures, integrate new ones, and even create your own textures and shadows using simplified tools. Particle Flow, or flux de particules in French, is added to the list of tools proposed by 3DS MAX. Thanks to it, you can create and parameterize natural elements composed of particles such as snow or fire.

Autodesk 3DS MAX integrates, as it is also the case for Autodesk Maya, the Arnold 3D rendering engine (see our article Arnold 3D rendering engine for more information) thanks to the extension called MAXtoA. It lets you follow the effects of your actions through detailed previews available in real time thanks to interactive rendering. But 3DS MAX is also compatible with most major rendering engines if you don’t want to use Arnold. Simply remove Arnold when installing 3DS MAX or uninstall it using the Windows add or remove programs tool. Finally, Autodesk 3DS MAX integrates a camera tool capable of simulating the effects produced by a real camera so that you can control the depth of field or the exposure of your scene, as you would do with a real camera.

For advanced users and developers, if the tools offered by the software do not fully meet your expectations or if you are missing some features among the integrated workflows (see our article What is a workflow ? for more information), APIs, or programming interfaces in French, are available to extend the possibilities offered by 3DS MAX.