Nice first effort, Anthony.  Yeah, you'll notice that I never said it wasn't tricky  |;-D

Yup, I'm running Max9 'cause a client's using it, but I'm still using Max8 as well; I've got a crapload of plugins that don't like 9.  Maybe next year I'll update to Max2008... just before Max2009 is released. LOL

Max 2008 is actually Max 10; the marketing boys at Autodesk are playing games again... drives me nuts.  So when a new version is released next year, it'll be called Max 2009.  It's so damn silly, like when Flash went from v.5 to v.MX, then v.MX2004, then v.8 and now v.CS3.  Gimme a break.

As it happens I did complain to Autodesk; that was like spitting into the wind, let me tell you.  Tim's not with Autodesk; he's a professor at the University of Dayton.

I may be wrong about this, but I don't believe that the Area is actually a part of Autodesk.  Another company, Erain, makes a lowish-end 3D app called Swift.  The place to go to discuss Swift is a site called SwiftDev.com... Erain has a link directly to SwiftDev... but SwiftDev is completely independent of Erain; doesn't even get any financial support from Erain, to my knowledge.

Yeah, it is kinda misleading.  It's exactly the same deal as with the Erain site and SwiftDev.

I believe the new naming scheme is all part of Autodesk's branding.

After Maya 8.0 came Maya 2008. After 3ds Max 9 came 3ds Max 2008. The latest version of Autocad is 2008.

No I do not work for Autodesk, nor have I ever worked for Discreet or Kinetix. Shawn Hendriks works for Autodesk and pretty much makes sure everything works on the AREA. There are other Autodesk employees who pop in from time to time. Some of them are in QA, some in development, and even some from documentation. Darv Atkeson is the Forum Moderator, and the rest of us are Forum Assistants. The Administrative tag is there because our accounts are somewhat different than Users, and it was the only way to code it in for all "administrators." Some of the forum assistants are former Autodesk employees. I'm one of the few who is not. While it is a common misconception that the forum assistants work for Autodesk, none currently do. The time we spend answering questions and working on the forum is our own time. Why do we do it? Perhaps you can ask bhnh why he takes so much of his time making videos and answering questions. We all have our own reasons.

This industry is built on people helping people. Ever used a ray-trace material, or ray-traced shadows? Well, give some thanks to Charles Csuri, co-founder of the Advanced Computer Center for Art and Design at Ohio State University. The original algorithm and formula for "ray-tracing" was his baby. But, he was working from the developments of others. Soon after he published his findings at ACM SIGGRAPH there was a flood of ray-traced images being produced world-wide, based directly on his work. As the basic process was refined and developed, it was published and passed along to others, who in turn would refine further, publish and pass it along again. Remember the fire in the first Shrek movie. Well, PDI did not give up the details the summer Sherk came out, but they did present at the next year's SIGGRAPH. Some things do not get published. Disney will not realeas CAPS; Pixar uses a mix of "off-the-shelf" software but also there own in-house procedures, which will remain in-house. However, the very basis of all 3D software is built upon the same fundamental principles that are free to everyone. Why? It's about growth and development. That's just the way this industry is.

And yes, the AREA is funded, supported and developed by Autodesk, ME division.

bhnh,

I looked at your tutorials and saw that you entered 0 in the text area of the spinner for position.   If you simply right click on the spinner arrows(anywhere in Max I have found) it turns the spinner value to 0.

You probably already know that and was entering the value for the sake of the tutorial.  I do not mean to sound like a know-it-all.  I just found that tip useful and pass it on when I see the opportunity .

Bruce???
i agree with the version renaming. TOTALLY crap!

next we'll be seeing is "try the ALL NEW Turbo Squid MX!!" lol