July 26, 2016

Massive Releases its AI-controlled Crowds for 3ds Max

World’s Most Popular Crowd Simulation Application Now Available to 3ds Max Users; Includes complimentary Ready to Run Agent

SIGGRAPH 2016, Anaheim, CA – July 26, 2016 – Today at SIGGRAPH 2016, Massive releases Massive for Max™, a seamless integration of its Academy Award-winning crowd simulation software into Autodesk’s 3ds Max™. Creating film quality 3D scenes with thousands of characters is now possible, using simple controls that can be learned in a day.

“If you know how to use 3ds Max, Massive will feel like second nature,” said Massive creator and CEO Stephen Regelous. “It is purposefully intuitive, so artists can seamlessly start putting our AI-driven Agents to work right away.”

Massive is the only crowd simulation software to feature characters controlled by artificial intelligence. These AI-driven characters can make their way through even the most arduous terrain, immediately reacting to changes within their environment. That eliminates the limitations of movement found in most other crowd simulation software using particle motion, where even minor changes in terrain can stop programmed characters, and therefore derail the entire simulation.

Massive’s Ready to Run Agents™ help artists populate common scenarios like stadiums, streets, and battlefields quickly, arriving with skeletons, shaders, an action library and other time-saving elements locked in. Highly editable, each agent can then be rendered at the touch of a button, using most major renderers, including 3-Delight, V-Ray, and mental ray. The agents ship with a large variety of geometry and texture maps to help customize their looks, as well as Massive’s industry-leading “fuzzy logic brain,” which grants agents the ability to react naturally to their environment. All Massive for Max subscribers will also receive an Ambient Ready to Run Agent as part of their subscription. Each of these industry-leading Agents comes with hundreds of motion captured actions preloaded.

Massive for Max incorporates all the key features Massive users have put to great use in recent television shows and films like Alice Through the Looking Glass, Game of Thrones (Season 6), and Spectre. Agent groups, placement generators, lanes, and flow fields provide powerful tools for populating shots. A “record” and “scrub” button that works alongside Max’s existing time controls has also been added, making the process of scrubbing through scenes with thousands of agents just as fast as it would be with a single character.

“Massive is the absolute industry leader in crowd simulation software thanks to its AI-controlled software that gives anyone the ability to create film-quality crowds with ease,” said Regelous. “Now 3ds Max users can access the same tools studios all over the world have trusted for years. It should make their lives a whole lot easier.”

Massive for Max will join a growing list of products from Massive Software, including Massive Prime, Massive Jet, Massive for Maya and the Ready to Run Agents. All programs offer artists the ability to create AI-controlled crowds that can analyze their situations and react accordingly. Crowd behaviors can be customized to suit the scenario, and individual characters in the crowd can be given specific instructions. The result is the highest quality of film-ready crowd simulation available today.

Key features in Massive for Max include:

  • Seamless integration with the 3ds Max user interface and workflow.
  • The Massive Ready to Run Agents automatically appear in both preview renders and batch renders, alongside any other objects in the scene.
  • Batch rendering with any of the supported renderers doesn't require a license, so renders can easily be executed on render farms.

For a closer look at how Massive for Max works, you can find video tutorials here.

Pricing/Availability

Massive for Max is available today on all 3ds Max platforms through a subscription model. Users will be able to subscribe quarterly for USD $595, or annually for USD $1995. All Massive for Max users will receive a complimentary “Ambient Agent,” which normally sells on its own for USD $3000.

About Massive

Massive makes 3D crowd simulation software for professional film, broadcast and architectural design artists. Developed by Stephen Regelous for the Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy, Massive allows artists to populate complex scenes with editable agents. Using artificial intelligence, these Agents save artists time by ensuring that complicated shots can be created quickly. Massive’s list of clients includes the most prominent VFX studios in the world, including WETA Digital, The Mill, Digital Domain, Iloura and Cinesite.