3Ds Max Software Review 2024: Pros & Cons

Verdict: Having tested 3ds Max, I can confidently conclude that it’s one of the best 3D modeling software that also offers top-notch animation and rendering features.

Being focused on games and design visualization, this program is a part of the collection of multimedia and entertainment software products developed by Autodesk.

This software helps users create massive game worlds and detailed characters, customize building environments, help with realistic virtual house staging, create scenes with many people, and simulate the physical properties of liquids such as water, oil, and lava.

It offers built-in animation controllers that users can create, modify, and share.

This cross-platform application can cover all needs in the development of models, scenes, animations, materials, and everything related to the 3D world. All special effects applied in cinema, presentations of state-of-art equipment, and even clothes and cars are pre-designed three-dimensional models that turn into real objects.

Digital artists choose it for several reasons, one of which is support for all existing scripts and plugins.

Skilled specialists first appreciate the unlimited potential and possibilities of the product, and only then take into account the ease of use and comfort.

The powerful feature set allows for creating incredible animations with detailed patterns and shapes, as well as moving objects in various geometric coordinates. Simulating realistic scenes such as flowing water, squirming smoke, or just stationary objects becomes easy thanks to the flexible approach to creating 3D models.

With unparalleled teamwork tools, you can achieve incredibly accurate results, and the variety of 3ds Max applications is simply amazing – realistic animations or detailed explanations for forensics are excellent proofs of this.

If making a 3ds Max vs 4D Cinema comparison, you’ll see that the first software has multiple animation controllers that are used to store key values and procedural settings, handling whatever users animate with it.

What’s more, 3ds Max allows you to link objects together. As a result, you can form hierarchies or chains, with which you can animate sets of objects at the same time to simplify the process.

Another benefit is providing 3D rendering features, including the preview feature. By activating the ActiveShade mode in the software, users will be able to see the effects as the lighting and materials in the scene change.

Undoubtedly, the program is newbie-friendly and comes with a clear interface, but you can find many 3ds Max tutorials floating around the Internet. That’s because all the power of this software is hidden in the pro-level features, lots of animation controllers, procedural animation options, object linking for hierarchies and chains, and in-depth rendering, to name a few.

Once you master these tools, you’ll be able to create real broadcast-level movies, develop HD video games, design super-accurate blueprints, and so on.

This top-rated rendering software features added data-driven information to scenes. Also, it allows editing individual paragraphs, words, or even letters.

When you copy text from Microsoft Word documents to 3ds Max, it preserves data such as font theme, font style, and symbols, making the 2D to 3D conversion process much easier.

You can now apply textures, animations, and effects to text objects. Such an object is automatically updated when the text changes. What’s more, when searching for a font, you can see its style.

Creative texture options include tiling, mirroring, decal placement, blurring, spline design, high-poly object design, UV-textures stretching, and dewarping.

Another useful feature is LSCM, i.e. Least Squares for Coordinate Projection. It’s designed to help keep texture distortion to a minimum.

The render-to-textures feature allows you to “bake” the material and lighting parameters of each object into new texture maps. When layering textures, you can use up to 99 UV sets. For dynamic resolution rendering, you can load vector graphics as texture maps.

3ds Max supports “teamwork” and is compatible with files from various programs. It allows for exporting and importing projects from and to other apps.

Another feature that I find effective is collaboration on one project using external links, for example, working with 3ds Max and Maya. To work with plugins, textures, images, and 3D models designed in other applications, the package supports almost endless file types.

This pro-grade animation software has a bunch of plug-ins and add-ons. Each of them is responsible for specific tasks. In particular, there are many plugins for modeling the photorealistic effects of smoke, fire, explosions, salutes, splashes, etc.

One notable advantage of using plugins in 3ds Max is the ability to customize the software according to specific project requirements. Whether it's advanced rendering engines, specialized modeling tools, or unique effects, plugins extend the capabilities of 3ds Max and allow artists to achieve their desired results more efficiently.

Popular plugins include those for photorealistic rendering, such as V-Ray or Corona Renderer, which deliver high-quality visuals with realistic lighting and materials. Other plugins focus on procedural modeling, animation, dynamics, or even specialized areas like architectural visualization or character rigging.

By incorporating these plugins, users can gain access to advanced features and workflows that go beyond the core capabilities of 3ds Max. This flexibility enables artists to explore new creative horizons and tackle complex projects with ease.

Moreover, the plugin community for 3ds Max is vibrant and constantly evolving. Developers release regular updates and new plugins, providing users with a growing library of options to choose from. This fosters a dynamic and innovative environment, where artists can stay up-to-date with the latest trends and techniques in the industry.

You can find separate add-ons developed to simulate landscapes and the starry sky. It’s helpful that some modules simplify the creation of organics (plants, flowers, and so on) as well.

While preparing this 3ds Max review, I decided to try all the available customer support options. To get started, you should visit the official website and use the troubleshooting guides, search the forum for an answer, or try the downloadable options.

There are several ways to contact a technical support representative, but you can be sure that you will be talking to a highly competent specialist in your particular issue. This is because you will narrow the topic of your problem at different stages. Otherwise, you can always write an e-mail to technical support.

Make sure your computer is truly powerful because 3ds Max like other flagship software is complex and cumbersome. For this reason, many users seek simplified solutions or delegate 3D development to others.

If you want this program to properly display moving scenes, you need a high-performance graphics card for video editing and rendering. When performing block I/O operations on 2-4 GB models, you run the risk of display problems because the video card memory is completely full.

Using 3ds Max is really expensive, but it’s worth it. Autodesk provides a 30-day free trial to evaluate product functionality, after which you need to purchase a subscription.

An annual subscription will cost you $1,968, and a monthly one is $246. When subscribing for 3 years, you need to pay $5,904.

Note: If you are a student or teacher, you can get the program for free for the first three years.