Wednesday, March 14th, 2012 Posted by Jim Thacker

Sneak peek: CAT tools and Bokeh effects in 3ds Max

Autodesk has released its latest sneak peeks at work-in-progress technology for 3ds Max: first up, applying CAT character animation controllers to non-CAT objects.

The video shows a very simple example: a keyframe animation of a cube rolling along the ground, created using a CATHDPivotTrans controller.

It works, but we’re not quite sure what is new: this 3D World tutorial, written for the 3ds Max 2010 Subscription Advantage Pack, sets out what seems to be the same technique.

More fun for us was the second sneak peek, which shows off the depth of field and Bokeh effects – the latter switched via MAXScript – possible with 3ds Max’s updated Nitrous viewport.

The video shows the tools in use to create a simple camera animation with some nice dynamic focal shifts.

As ever, the technology is likely, but not guaranteed, to form part of 3ds Max 2013.

Previous 3ds Max sneak peeks

The updated Nitrous viewport

MassFX physics system

‘Send To’ workflow with Maya and MotionBuilder

MediaSync interoperability with After Effects

Deformable Poly object type

mCloth cloth simulation

Fixes for ‘Small Annoying Things’