Bundles Only

As of November 2, 2009, users will only be able to obtain a license of ImageModeler 2009 when they purchase a license of Autodesk  3ds Max 2010, Autodesk 3ds Mac Design 2010 or Autodesk Maya 2010 software with Autodesk Subscription. 

Autodesk says this decision was made to refine and simply their product range, while at the same time providing their customers with an improved and more complete workflow solution. 

Existing ImageModeler clients, of which Autodesk says there are fewer than 100, have been informed of this decision.

“We’re thrilled that Autodesk is expanding its Mac 2D and 3D software offerings for our creative professionals.” said Ron Okamoto, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations.

Available Mac Products

While some products were previously announced for the Mac today Autodesk is unveiling Mac OS X support for Autodesk Mudbox 2009, Autodesk Toxik 2009, and Autodesk ImageModeler 2009 for the first time. Additional Mac products coming from Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment software division include Autodesk Maya 2009 and Autodesk Stitcher 2009. 

Outside of the M&E division Autodesk makes a few other native Mac OS X products, most notably Autodesk SketchBook Pro (a product formerly belonging to Alias) and Autodesk MotionBuilder 2008 (edit. note: the 2008 version is one version behind but available for Mac users to purchase, future versions for the Mac are in the works). 

Autodesk makes a big splash at Macworld SF 2009 - Introduces Five New Native Mac OS X Applications

“Given the growing adoption of Mac OS X and the production requirements of the Mac community, we’re excited to offer these premiere creative tools to Mac artists,” said Stig Gruman, Digital Entertainment Group vice president of Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “Autodesk’s product offerings will empower artistic vision and provide Mac users with the tools to bring their creative ideas to life.” 

As noted in this story yesterday, Autodesk’s announcements for Mac OS X signal a surging trend in Mac adoption and demand for Mac products from the world’s largest software developer of design software. With this major announcement, Autodesk is clearly signaling that it intends to fully meet that demand from its growing customers who prefer to work on Apple’s UNIX-based Mac OS X operating system. And this is a very exciting thing.

Autodesk recently acquired RealViz and its popular ImageModeler which was a fully Mac native application. Now with the new Autodesk ImageModeler 2009 the product has become Windows-only. It should be pointed out that RealViz was a cross-platform developer and that ImageModeler is fully QuickTime architecture driven and requires Apple QuickTime 7 to work. Interestingly, the 3D is OpenGL 1.2 driven and requires a professional graphics card at the level of a Quadro 6xx series or an ATI FireGL 2007 series or better. Why this app doesn’t run on a Mac now is a question worth mentioning to the folks at Autodesk.

Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited 2009 is also a new app from RealViz. This tool is a superb application for creating partial or full spherical panoramas. The new version has a fully automatic engine (eg: stitching, alignment and color correction can be automated) and there is support for a double shot technique using two shots from a fisheye lens. HDR (high dynamic range) is now supported and there is full interoperability with Adobe Photoshop. GPU acceleration, selectable render area support and a redesigned user interface round out the application. Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited 2009 should be available on both Mac and Windows in October 2008.

Autodesk MotionBuilder 2009 was also introduced at Siggraph 2008. This product, originally from Kaydara, is also now a Windows only application despite being a strong Mac application at one time. In fact, its original developer was strongly encouraging Apple’s Mac OS X platform as the 3D artists’ platform of the future prior to selling his company to Autodesk. MotionBuilder 2009 is said to be the most significant release of the software since its inception. MotionBuilder is used to do both keyframing and motion capture processing. MotionBuilder 2009 has a deeper integration with Maya and 3ds Max, new real-time rendering in the viewport with support for advanced hardware shaders.

Next Limit at Siggraph

The Spanish company exhibited the upcoming RealFlow Rendering Toolkit and well as the latest version of Maxwell Render with its new SSS and Physical Sky Features.

NewTek News

NewTek introduced LightWave 9.5 for Windows at Siggraph with the Mac version still in a beta stage. The new Lightwave 9.5 features FiberFX, a complete hair and fur solution, a new lighting system and many improvements to animation, rendering and workflow. FiberFX is a new proprietary polygonal fiber modeler. Other improvements include radiosity render disk-based caches for faster performance, a new API structure for its lighting system (now third-parties can write plugins for custom lights and controls) and new inverse kinematics (IK) z-axis capabilities.