Max Underground – 10 Year Anniversary!

Welcome one, welcome all to our 10 year anniversary!!!

As you may recall when we pulled the curtains on the new version of MU some months ago, we said there were more good things to come. I’m glad to say we have something special prepared for this anniversary.

We have been reporting the news for ten years, and as you may have noticed, we’ve always tried to place special emphasis on context. It is one of the central principles of journalism. News without context becomes a bombardment of headlines, pieces of loose information that justify their own existence by being novelties, but which serve little to no practical purpose.

Quoting US journalist Bill Moyers: “I worry that my own business (…) helps to make this an anxious age of agitated amnesiacs (…) We seem to know everything about the last twenty-four hours but very little of the last sixty centuries or the last sixty years.”

We have thus decided to celebrate this anniversary by publishing a series of hard-hitting articles on the past, current state and future of the CG industry, written by people who have worked for many years in CG-related fields. The ideas and questions for these articles have been prepared collectively by Dave Baker, Neil Blevins, Scott Kirvan and yours truly in a fun collaborative process.

And what better way to start the “context” series than researching the origins of the software that is the reason for the existence of this site? Our first article focuses on the history of 3D Studio, and is the result of an interview with Tom Hudson, one of the core developers of the software and author of all versions of its precursors, Solid States and CAD-3D, something which has earned him the name of “the father of 3D Studio”. We have learned many things from talking to Tom, and his insights have made us look at 3D Studio in a different light. I’m sure you’ll have the same impression after reading the article.

Through these ten years MU has grown more than we could have ever imagined. Visits keep going up and the site is being frequented daily by some of the biggest VFX houses around the world, game development companies, architecture firms, companies from the entertainment, health, aviation, car manufacturing, nautical, food, transportation and many other industries. And all this has been achieved without a single dime circulating through the site. 🙂

The one who gave Max Underground its initial direction was of course its founder, Scott Kirvan. As part of the Blur Studio team, he developed 3DS Max plugins with Steve Blackmon and, with Blur’s blessing, released them to the public for free. This tradition of giving and helping others has been one of the main pillars of the site.

Whatever we have given through these ten years, though, has been returned in kind. We have received nothing but goodwill from readers and fellow artists. Every time we’ve asked for help, no one (and I mean no one in ten years) has hesitated to open the doors for us. For this we want to thank you all. The incredible response from readers as well as the trust they put on this site is one of our great satisfactions. We are clearly aware that much like 3DS Max has been extended through users’ scripts and plugins, this site has grown continuously thanks to your contributions, and is in that sense the result not only of MU editors’ work, but of a collective effort that spans the globe.

The best part of the job has been without a doubt the great people we’ve met along the way. We’ve met fellow artists from countries such as Poland, Spain, Italy, France, Israel, Brazil, US, Canada, England, Germany, Russia, Ireland, Turkey, Mexico, Portugal, The Netherlands, Australia, India, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Japan, Egypt, Greece, you name it.

It’s been also great to ride the same CG wave with other news sites; on this ten year anniversary we would like to send our greetings to the folks at 3DVF, 3D y Animación, CGSociety, 3DM3, Evermotion, CGChannel, Digital Arts, CGArena, Dimensión 2.5, Três D1, CGenie, and many others, as well as Raphael Benedet’s 3D Artists site, ScriptSpot and of course Maxplugins.

We would like to thank each and every editor who has contributed to MU in the past: Richard Annema, Simon Reeves, Elvis Deane, Metin Seven, Laurent M. Abecassis, Matthew Dartford, J.R. Porter, Dagan Potter, DavidH, and Chris Bond and any other I may be neglecting.

We would also like to thank the Yost Group, Autodesk, and current and past developers of 3DS Max for producing the 3D software we enjoy using so much.

I would like to publicly thank Scott Kirvan, for giving me the chance to post news at this site for the first time almost ten years ago, and also for the great freedom I’ve enjoyed here as editor-in-chief. It’s been an incredible learning experience.

On a final note, we would like to invite you all to give us your feedback on the site. If there is any additional coverage or new sections/functionalities you would like to see, please let us know. Suggestions, criticism, ideas are as always welcome.

Finally, to each and every one of our readers, THANK YOU for these great ten years!

Thank you for your support, help and contributions. There are, yes, many more good things to come. 🙂

HAPPY TEN YEARS MU!