The thylacine was a carnivorous marsupial in Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea that thrived for hundreds of years. That is, until it went extinct last century (probably, there's a decent chance small populations still exist, but for the sake of this metaphor, let's ignore that). 3DS Max might be the next thylacine: a unique, interesting thing wiped out by humans. However, 3DS Max won't be incidentally hunted to extinction. It will be destroyed intentionally.
Why would Autodesk want to discontinue 3DS Max? There are actually some good reasons. Autodesk is the parent company of Maya, another 3D modeling program that I've used. Unlike its sister software, though, Maya can run on operating systems other than Windows. This makes it possible for Mac and Linux users to run it without building a virtual machine or switching operating systems. 3DS Max simply can't gain a wider demographic due to its limited availability for different types of computers. Additionally, the age of the program makes it harder to update than Maya, which has a staff that knows the software better. Lastly, it doesn't make a lot of sense for one company to have two 3D modeling programs - especially when one is more available than the other. Is there any merit to the rumors of discontinuance, though? It seems so. Autodesk has already announced that they are discontinuing the 3DS Max Asset Library. Autodesk got rid of Softimage in 2014. However, 3DS Max still has an active and large community which is full of workers who won't be willing to give up on the software they have trained and made a living on. That being said, as Maya becomes the industry standard, I wouldn't be surprised to see 3DS Max going extinct in the near future. Summary
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You've heard of Thanos and Superman and countless other characters from superhero films that have power almost beyond imagination. However, a couple weeks ago, I discovered something with an inconceivable amount of power, enough to rival the toughest fictional characters - and it was right in front of me. Modular design.
Modular design is, essentially, duplicating 3D models to create something larger. For example, one could duplicate 4 walls to create a room instead of spending four times the time and effort to create a room from scratch. It's really useful and a common sight in the game industry. It has countless benefits. There's less lag when loading models, less memory is taken up by the computer running the program, and it's just easier to make. I'll admit it. The first three sentences of this blog post are misleading, to say the least. But modular design is indeed powerful. Last week, I made use of modular design to plan out a simple outpost and build it. First, I sketched out different components of the build. Then, I moved to 3DS Max, where I built windows, walls, and more replicable things. It made the design process infinitely easier. I retained creative freedom and made an interesting final product, even when duplicating multiple parts of a certain model. Making the outpost only reinforced my belief in modular design being a sensational part of 3D modeling. I can't wait to make use of this newfound power in the Unity Game Engine, hopefully making the process of creative a game a little more accessible to me. For now, though, I'm off to fight Thanos with 3DS Max. Wish me luck! Last week, I used 3DS Max for the first time in a year and a half. I almost instantly got comfortable with the move, rotate, and scale tools. I was also able to regain my proficiency quickly regarding editable polys. However, getting used to moving around in a scene and switching viewports took me a couple days. I also took a while to get back into finding things quickly, often having to search the right click menu for the right tool or investigate the main toolbar.
I experienced several problems relating to not selecting all the correct components or selecting too many things. I overcame these challenges by moving the selection and then using ctrl+z to undo the move if there was something missing or added on. While I didn't finish creating a fire hydrant in 3DS Max, going through some of the process of making it certainly helped me refresh myself. Not only did it bring me back into the mindset of 3D modeling, but it also helped in a technical sense. Extruding and insetting came back to me. I remembered how to use the symmetry modifier. I regained my use of the connect tool to form new edges. I'd like to continue doing 3D modeling a little more. I'd especially like to revisit texturing, as it's vital to game design and not too tricky. UVW texturing is another issue entirely, but it might be good to go back to as well. It's certainly been an adventure to be back in 3DS Max and I can't wait to continue the year. Although 3D modeling isn't a main focus of this year's Game Art and Design class, I've been doing a fair amount of it lately. From being bored to having summer assignments, messing around in Maya has taught me some things about 3D modeling.
Adding materials to objects to texture them is a lot easier to do in Maya than in 3DS Max. Also, Maya has an immediate option of what type of shading method you want to use, while 3DS Max is not as intuitive and simple to add a shader. These options include Lambert and Blinn as well as many others, but for today I'm only going to focus on the two I specifically listed. Lambert. Lambert, Lambert, Lambert. It's fun to say and makes you hooray! I really like the versatility of this shader, as it isn't too reflective, is pretty customizable, and can be applied successfully to lots of different objects. I use Lambert a whole lot and I take advantage of the straightforwardness of the interface that Maya provides to make my textures the best it can be. Now let's talk about Blinn. It's kinda fun to say, but it's really just okay. Blinn is a pretty reflective shading choice and is useful for creating things like polished metal, but is nowhere near as versatile as its cousin Lambert. Blinn is extremely customizable, but it just isn't as good as Lambert. So there you have it. Lambert is a great choice for most objects, but Blinn isn't completely irrelevant. Hopefully, I'll get to learn and love Blinn a little more as I get more experience, but for right now, it's not my favorite shader. Summary
You may know 3DS Max as a 3-D modeling program widely used by game designers. I have several months of experience by now, and I’ve realized many things about the program.
Usually, I love working in 3DS Max. I thrive in the blank canvas of the creative 3D program. There are truly countless possibilities that I can make, and that’s one thing I love about 3DS Max. Also, the tools available in the program are very useful for making things like trees, Rubik’s cubes, and houses. After years of playing the popular sandbox game Minecraft, I’ve developed a deep love for 3D creativity. Working with 3D Studio Max in Digital Design has been the best part of my day very often. However, even the best program is bound to have problems. The immense lag I’ve experienced this past week compiling an intricate Old West scene has been infuriating. It takes almost thirty seconds to render my scene because of the vast number of things in it. Sometimes 3DS Max leaves me angry because of other circumstances. For example, it takes a few minutes for the program to boot up, which is always an annoyance. 3DS Max can also unexpectedly crash and delete all your progress, which happened to one of my classmates today in Digital Design. Although 3DS Max is far from perfect, it is probably my favorite computer program I’ve worked with. It offers creativity along with helpful ways to foster creativity. The problems aren’t very abundant, and don’t pose a huge challenge for me. I think I might just really like 3DS Max... Summary
During the past few weeks working in 3-D Studio Max, I began to use compound objects for the first time. Compound objects offer unique ways to group, spread out, and edit shapes in the program. I initially worked with boolean and proboolean, two similar ways to group objects together. There are five main different options which let you easily modify your shapes. The union operand parameter allows two or more objects to be combined without the intersecting sections of the individual shapes. Merge, although similar to union, keeps the overlapping volume. Attach is also closely related to union also; it can combine two shapes. Choosing the intersect mode will only keep the intersecting portions and remove the remainder of the shapes. The subtract option deletes volume of one shape as well as its overlapping parts.
After working with boolean, I moved on to blobmeshes, which can give objects a slushy or blob-like appearance. Next I learned about lofting, a way to make custom shapes with a single line based off a few different 2-D objects. Textplus and procutter were the next compound objects I used. They gave me an easy way to implement text and make indentions in shapes. Then, I used sweep and array to complete my understanding of compound objects. Sweep can create a unique pattern often used for architectural moulding, and array can space out and duplicate objects in a custom way. I fell in love with boolean in particular because of its simplicity and usefulness. It's not complicated to learn how to use, and I easily mastered it. There are so many ways to use boolean, as I listed above. Each of the operand parameters available offer a new idea that's just begging to be made, such as the ice cream cone below. Summary
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AuthorHI! I'm a 12th grader and on this page, I will blog about me and what I'm going through, both in Game Design class and in life. There are a mix of required blog posts and personal reflections, which you can sort, among other things, below the disclaimer and archives. DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools. Archives
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