3ds Max (3D Studio Max) ’09.
Employed in many of the top Hollywood film productions, videogames and TV commercials, but also priced for the home studio, this full-featured 3D modeling, animation, rendering and effects solution has everything you need to create high-quality content. The latest version, 3ds Max 9, offers new rendering capabilities, improved interoperability with industry-standard products including Revit software, lighting simulation and analysis technology, and additional time-saving animation and mapping workflow tools. The software now comes in two distinct flavors to better meet the specific needs of entertainment and visualization customers. In addition, greater OBJ translation fidelity and more import/export options allow for more accurate data transfers between 3ds Max and digital modeling packages, including the new Autodesk Mudbox software. Suggested retail price is $3,495, with upgrades from 3ds Max 2008 going for approximately $895.
Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection.
Adobe has crammed a bunch of its popular software applications into this little box. This comprehensive, cross-media creative environment offers users a wide variety of options for designing print, interactive, web, film, video and mobile content. Integrating new versions of widely used Adobe software, the suite allows artists to design freely with images, vectors, video and sound, moving easily from page to screen. The Master Collection combines Adobe InDesign CS4, Photoshop CS4 Extended, Illustrator CS4, Acrobat 9 Pro, Flash CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver CS4, Fireworks CS4, Contribute CS4, After Effects CS4, Premiere Pro CS4, Soundbooth CS4, OnLocation CS4 and Encore CS4 with additional tools and services. You get all that for $2,499, or upgrade for $899.
Blender.
Developed as an in-house application by Dutch animation studio NeoGeo and Not a Number Technologies (NaN), Blender is a free, open-source 3D content creation suite available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License. It may not have all the same bells and whistles of leading packages such as Max and Maya, but this software is a great value considering what it costs’nothing. Students, independents, hobbyists and even professionals can take advantage of Blender’s tools for modeling, rigging, animation, rendering, UV unwrapping, shading, physics and particles, imaging and compositing, and realtime 3D/game creation. Blender can be downloaded from www.blender.org, where visitors will find educational materials and support, as well as an online community of users.
DigiCel FlipBook.
Many of our readers wrote in to tell us how easy it is to create 2D animation and line tests with this classic number. FlipBook allows animators to draw right on the computer using their mouse or tablets, or draw on paper, then shoot the rough sketches under a camera for speed, then scan the cleaned up drawings for quality. You can also paint the drawings quickly and add pans and zooms and then export the movies on the web. You can download the entry-level program for $79, the midrange version for $299 and the high-end professional program (1,500 frames and 99 foreground layers) for $699. As one of the software’s fans noted, ‘What I like about FlipBook that you feel like it was made with the animator in mind!’
e-on’s Vue 7 xStream.
This product from e-on Software offers professional CG artists a complete toolset for creating rich and realistic natural environments and integrating them into any professional production pipeline, including 3ds Max, Maya, LightWave, CINEMA 4D and XSI. Possible applications for the 3D scenery program range from architectural visualization to broadcast and film. Vue offers full interaction with native elements, including two-way mutual shadow casting, reflection, refraction and lighting. The latest release is based on a totally redesigned integration approach. Among the new features is EcoSystem Generation III, featuring new Dynamic Population Technology for creating dense ecosystems that extend beyond the horizon without concern over the number of instances. There’s also a new way of viewing scenes from a graph-based point of view, MetaNodes for grouping several nodes or links into a single node, and full compatibility with mental ray technologies such as Sun & Sky, Photometric Lights and Distributed Bucket Rendering. Special offer pricing through www.e-onsoftware.com is currently $1,235.
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