Maya, from Alias (previously known as Alias | Wavefront) has long been a big name in 3D animation, but after receiving an Academy Award, things look set to get even bigger. Now in its fifth incarnation, Maya should be even better than before, so what's new?

Almost five years have past now since the first release of 3ds max, then called the full 3D Studio MAX. One of the first packages of its kind to introduce affordability and performance to an industry dominated by huge price tags. And even after its competitors have been forced to compromise their price to compete, max has kept up its innovative features and held its ground.

TrueSpace has always led the pack in terms of features as far as Windows 3D animation packages under $2,000 are concerned. Recently, however, the market has become rather crowded, with a powerful upgrade to Ray Dream (reviewed issue 9, p100) and the cut-down version of LightWave 3D (Inspire 3D) both challenging it on features and price.

Photoshop moves beyond photo editing to conquer completely new territory.

Create freehand animations

Create and design animated Flash intros, banners, ads, pop-ups and any other Flash animation

A linetesting tool for the creators of animated films and cartoons. TOKI LineTest is a useful tool ...

A linetesting tool for the creators of animated films and cartoons. TOKI LineTest is a useful tool ...

Virtual 'cheers', provided you drink responsibly.

The Quadro FX3000 is based on the same NV35 core that powers the latest GeForce FX 5900 cards, but with a few new additions to cater to the professional market. Compared to the older Quadro FX2000, which was based on the NV30, or GeForce FX5800, the FX3000 has double the memory, at 256MB, as well as a 256-bit memory interface, giving double the theoretical graphics bandwidth, hitting just over 27GB/s. It also supports other features from the NV35, including a 128-bit floating-point precision graphics pipeline, 128-bit colour, 12-bit sub-pixel accuracy, 16x full-scene anti-aliasing, 3D volumetric textures, and of course support for all the latest OpenGL, DirectX and NVIDIA’s own Cg graphics language versions.

A new interface, drawing engine and programming language, but surprisingly little new power.

A 3D modeling and animation tool Gmax is a 3D level editing, modeling, animation, and texture mapp...

The name LiveMotion comes from its ability to bring compositions to life as animations; these are then output as QuickTime movies..

2003 is going to be remembered as the year of the Matrix glut, with two movies, A multi-platform computer game and DVD releases across the year. Rumours are that there is even another game coming out, although this one may not hit until 2004. For now, in between Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions theatrical releases is the release of the companion DVD, Animatrix.

Improved interface, object and layer handling, plus integrated 3D painting add greatly to power, usability and value

Build in back-up and virtual desktops in the works for Apple users.

A program for Web traffic designers. Animation Shop has high-quality easy-to-use creative effects,...

Create Java banners to bring your website to life. Ulead Animation Applet allows you to easily crea...

3D models creation and animation software

A full-featured GIF animation software. GIF Construction Set Professional provides everything you ...