PETALING JAYA: 3D design software expert Autodesk Inc updated its Digital Entertainment Creation software suites for 3D modelling, animation, effects and rendering.
The 2011 versions of Maya, 3ds Max, Softimage and other software have been improved to take advantage of better hardware, such as Intel Corp’s latest quad-core processors, as well as new nVidia and ATI graphics cards.
Autodesk’s products also now work better with the 64-bit version of Snow Leopard, the Mac operating system.
Tan Choon Sang, Autodesk Malaysia country manager, said there’s a growing demand for high-definition content and stereoscopic 3D movies like Avatar in today’s entertainment industry.
“With our tools, artists will be equipped with the capability to work more efficiently to incorporate 3D modelling, visual effects and stereoscopic 3D into their story telling,” he said.
Autodesk Asia Pte Ltd application sales engineer Matthew Dewees demonstrated the ease of using 3ds Max 2011 to render unique environments.
Using a single art asset — just one tree — he then employed 3ds Max to randomise the asset’s height to create an entire forest.
Other enhancements include better tools for texture painting over 3D models.
“One of the major improvements in our 2011 line up is improved facial animation in our character animation software, Autodesk Softimage,” said Dewees.
“Taking data out from motion-capture data and applying audio clips, we can easily lip sync recorded voices to a 3D animated head while greatly reducing the time for artists to animate the face.
“Essentially, we’ve taken out the complexity and streamlined the process for a more efficient workflow.”
Other Autodesk software that were updated are MotionBuilder 2011 and Mudbox 2011.
3ds Max Entertainment Creation Suite 2011 and Maya Entertainment Creation Suite 2011 are priced at RM19,700 each.
It is RM3,430 for Mudbox 2011 and RM16,200 for MotionBuilder 2011.
Trial versions of the software are available at http://bit.ly/ZiQTA.
