Hagerman & Company, Inc. Technology Bulletin
Creativity Extension for Autodesk 3ds Max
Design 2009
by
Joy Voltenburg
Multimedia Consultant
Autodesk Certified Instructor - 3ds Max
The Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design Creativity Extension
offers a range of new and enhanced features exclusively to members of the
Autodesk® Subscription program.
Polygon
Modeling
Reduce the number of faces on your model, quickly and intelligently. The 3ds
Max Design Creativity Extension release incorporates the new ProOptimizer
technology, which is ideal for optimizing high-poly count 3D models from
digital sculpting applications, such as Autodesk® Mudbox™ software.
This newest, high-performance 3ds Max Design modifier offers support for the
following:
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Precision control over the number of faces or points in your scene/model |
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Preservation of detail: useful faces are removed last, enabling you to reduce your selection up to 75 percent without removing detail |
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Real-time scene optimization (optimization is pre-calculated) |
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Batch optimizing of files (you control the optimization level for each file) |
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Preservation of all UV texture channel information and vertex color channel information |
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Optimization of multiple objects simultaneously (optimize a selection of faces or the inverted selection across multiple objects) |
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Symmetry preservation |
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Protection or exclusion of object borders, so your objects stay connected after optimization |
Advanced Particle Effects
Incorporate sophisticated particle effects into your scenes. PFlowAdvanced
includes 12 operators new to 3ds Max Design, giving you easier access to a
whole new range of creative options. The addition of the PFlowAdvanced
technology to 3ds Max Design not only greatly enhances the functionality of
Particle Flow, but it also gives you a high-performance, streamlined 3ds Max
Design workflow, through which to access its features.
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Numerous paint tools enable you to precisely place particles in your scene. Operators—including Particle Paint, Birth Paint, Placement Paint, Birth Texture, and Mapping Object—enable you to paint both particles and emitters onto specific parts of your objects. Other special effects include the ability to emit particles based on animated color data in emitter objects. |
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The utility operators have been integrated into the 3ds Max Design core to extend Particle Flow's capabilities, while giving you a streamlined workflow for creating particle effects. Clean up particle flow, synchronize layers, repair the cache system, save a custom flow as a preset, and automatically delete operators that are not in use and lock or bond particles to an object (improves on the former position object operator). |
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The ability to group particles enables you to perform specific operations on arbitrary subsets of particles. Quickly create multiple groups and work with as many of them as you like through such operators as Group Selection, Group, and Split Group. |
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The PFlowAdvanced Shape operators greatly expand the Particle Flow Shape toolset. Define a particle shape beginning with a pre-existing shape (a vast range of 3D and 2D shape presets are available to choose from). Additionally, the Fast Shape Evaluation operation evaluates a reference mesh object on the final frame quickly and accurately, significantly improving performance. |
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Workflow enhancements include an Express Save operator that has been integrated with the 3ds Max Design auto-save functionality, backward compatibility with Orbaz Particle Flow Tools, Box # 1-based scenes, and general memory and performance improvements based on source code optimizations. |
Integrated Audio
The incorporation of ProSound into the 3ds Max Design Creativity Extension
means the software now supports integrated, multitrack audio to enhance your
presentations through the addition of high-quality audio, and sound effects.
This allows you to assign sounds to objects such as doors and fountains, and
add a music track or voice-over for your presentations.
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The 3ds Max Design ProSound toolset supports up to 100 audio tracks per scene, per-track animated volume, audio output normalization, and audio playback during motion capture. |
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An intuitive user interface and workflow features help you to quickly synchronize your audio. Sync your playback with the viewport, render your track to match playback speed, or play it backwards and forwards (ping pong mode). |
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ProSound supports both PCM and compressed audio in AVI and WAV format with up to six output channels. It can also be quickly controlled via MaxScript through 46 script commands. |