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3ds Max 2026.1 The new feature in 3ds Max 2026.1 is the Attribute Transfer modifier, shown in the video above. It transfers attributes – vertex positions, normals and colors, plus up to two sets of UVs – from one model to another. According to Autodesk, it provides a “new, non-destructive modifier workflow” for tasks that were typically done through scripting. There are also updates to a couple of the existing modifiers, including the Push modifier, used to inflate or deflate 3D meshes. It gets a number of new options, including the option to use other objects in a scene to limit the result of the push operation. When the result collides with a control object, it stops moving in that direction in real time. A new Relax Iterations setting smooths the mesh in a similar way to the Relax modifier, helping to prevent issues with self-intersection. It is also now possible to limit push operations to specific axes. The XForm modifier, used to apply transformations non-destructively to objects, gets a choice of four transformation modes. As well as the previous default behavior, users can now transform objects in local space, world space, or relative to another object in the scene. There is also a self-explanatory new Preserve Normals checkbox. 3ds Max’s Universal Scene Description plugin has been updated, with USD for 3ds Max 0.11 adding a new Promote to 3ds Max Object option. It promotes USD geometry to a 3ds Max object, making it possible to work on it using native 3ds Max tools. In addition, the USD Exporter now supports the OpenPBR material, which has been 3ds Max’s default material since 3ds Max 2026. There are also a number of workflow improvements, and new Python functions for manipulating USD layers. 3ds Max’s integration plugin for Autodesk’s Arnold renderer has also been updated, with MAXtoA 5.8.2 supporting the changes in Arnold 7.4.2. They’re primarily performance improvements, especially to scene initialization times when rendering on machines with high numbers of CPU cores. 3ds Max 2026.1 is compatible with Windows 10+. It is rental-only. Subscriptions cost $255/month, up a further $10/month since 3ds Max 2026, or $2,010/year, up $65/year. In many countries, artists earning under $100,000/year and working on projects valued at under $100,000/year qualify for Indie subscriptions, which now cost $330/year. https://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2026/ENU/?guid=GUID-584026C2-5EAA-4F03-B676-0A4D0C2372AA MotionMaker Autodesk has released Maya 2026.1, the latest version of its 3D modeling and animation software for visual effects, games and motion graphics work. The release adds MotionMaker, a new AI-based system for generating movement animations for biped and quadruped characters, especially for previs and layout work. Other changes include a new modular character rigging framework inside Bifrost for Maya, plus updates to liquid simulation, OpenPBR support and USD workflows. Autodesk has also released Maya Creative 2026.1, the corresponding update to the cut-down edition of Maya for smaller studios. The headline feature in Maya 2026.1 is MotionMaker: a new generative animation system. It lets users “create natural character movements in minutes instead of hours”, using a workflow more “like giving stage directions to a digital actor” than traditional animation. Users set keys for a character’s start and end positions, or create a guide path in the viewport, and MotionMaker automatically generates the motion in between. At the minute, that mainly means locomotion cycles, for both bipeds and quadrupeds, plus a few other movements, like jumping or sitting. Although MotionMaker is designed for “anyone in the animation pipeline”, the main initial use cases seem to be layout and previs rather than hero animation. Its output is also intended to be refined manually – Autodesk’s promotional material describes it as getting users “80% of the way there” for “certain types of shots”. Accordingly, MotionMaker comes with its own Editor window, which provides access to standard Maya animation editing tools. Users can layer in animation from other sources, including motion capture or keyframe animation retargeted from other characters: to add upper body movements, for example. There are a few more MotionMaker-specific controls: the video above shows speed ramping, to control the time it takes the character to travel between two points. There is also a Character Scale setting, which determines how a character’s size and weight is expressed through the animation generated. You can read more about the design and aims of MotionMaker in a Q&A with Autodesk Senior Principal Research Scientist Evan Atherton on Autodesk’s blog. According to Atherton, the AI models were trained using motion capture data “specifically collected for this tool”. That includes source data from male and female human performers, plus wolf-style dogs, although the system is “designed to support additional [motion] styles” in future. RealityScan 2.0 RealityCapture 2.0 – or rather, RealityScan 2.0 – is a change of branding, with the desktop application taking its new name and logo from Epic Games’ existing mobile scanning app. First released in 2022, RealityScan was originally pitched as a way to make RealityCapture’s functionality accessible to hobbyists as well as pros. It’s a pure photogrammetry tool, turning photos captured on a mobile phone or tablet into textured 3D models for use in AR, game development or general 3D work. New features in RealityCapture 2.0 will include AI-powered masking, with the software automatically identifying and masking out the background of the source images. The change should remove the need to generate masks manually, either in RealityCapture itself or an external DCC app. In addition, the default settings have been updated to improve alignment of source images, particularly when scanning objects with smooth surfaces and few surface features. To help troubleshoot scans, a new Quality Analysis Tool displays heatmaps showing parts of the scan where more images may be needed to reconstruct the source object accurately. The update will also introduce support for aerial Lidar data, which may be used alongside aerial photography and terrestrial data to reconstruct environments more accurately. It isn’t clear which of those new features will be included in the mobile app, although it will presumably also be updated to version 2.0 at the same time, since Epic Games’ blog post announcing the changes describes its aim as to “unify the desktop and mobile versions”. RealityScan 2.0 is due in the “coming weeks”. Epic Games hasn’t announced an exact release date, or any changes to price or system requirements. The current version of the desktop software, RealityCapture 1.5, is available for Windows 7+ and Windows Server 2008+. It’s CUDA-based, so you need a CUDA 3.0-capable NVIDIA GPU. The desktop software is free to artists and studios with revenue under $1 million/year. For larger studios, subscriptions cost $1,250/seat/year. The current version of the mobile app, RealityScan 1.6, is compatible with Android 7.0+, iOS 16.0+ and iPadOS 16.0+. It’s free, including for commercial use. By default, its EULA gives Epic Games the right to use your scan data to train products and services, but you can opt out in the in-app settings. https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/news/all-the-big-news-and-announcements-from-the-state-of-unreal-2025 Unreal Engine 5.6 Character artists get the “biggest update yet” to the in-editor animation tools, with major revamps of Motion Trails, the Tween Tools, and the Curve Editor, plus the option to sculpt morph targets in-editor, and built-in physics in the Control Rig. Lumen gets performance updates to Hardware Ray Tracing (HWRT) mode, intended to help games using the real-time global illumination system run more consistently at 60fps. There are also several completely new toolsets, including the Mocap Manager, a new “end-to-end solution” for recording and managing mocap data inside the Unreal Editor. In addition, MetaHuman Creator is now integrated directly inside Unreal Engine: part of a wide-ranging set of changes to the character-creation framework. The Unreal Engine 5.6 Editor is compatible with Windows 10+, macOS 14.0+ and RHEL/Rocky Linux 8+. For non-interactive content, the software is free to users with revenue under $1 million/year. For larger studios, subscriptions cost $1,850/seat/year, including Twinmotion and RealityCapture. For games developed with the engine, Epic takes 5% of the gross royalties after the first $1 million generated. https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/unreal-engine-5-6-release-notes

Yes I popped the new segments in with Edge Cut. CBR

It bridged fine when I enabled the Reverse option and set Spin Steps to -1.

Thanks for that. Did you bridge it with theStitch and Sew, then add the other subdivisions in with the knife tool? The S&S tool just makes one giant bridge for me, or 2 if I press CTRL.

So Autograph is an AE competitor. Maxon collaborates with Adobe through Cinewere for AE and a bit with Vector Import from PS/IL. (Not mentioning Red Giant, Universe and how often VFX&Chill uses AE in their live shows) Maxon aquires the competotor of Adobe. How will that be seen from Adobe ? Now that I think of it... it doesn't mean much... Red Giant and Universe are plugins, it's not a colaboration. But the Cinewere thing I don't know... I really wasn't expecting an aquisition of that kind. Wasn't Magic Bullet Looks supposed to fill the missing compositing component ? I think they will try to use Autograph's code to enhance Magic Bullet Looks...

I wonder if this is going to be a Redshift RT standalone!

It felt like it was trying to be a more advanced AE with the timeline of AE, but some of the more advanced 3D features you find in other compositing software. For instance, you could bring in USD/GLTF assets and assign or create PBR materials. I tried it and was more frustrated than anything. This guy explains some of the features. Many of the comments echo what others have said, which is bad UX/UI and a lot of this stuff you can do in other software already.

I just posted the news article in our work chat, not one of us had ever heard of them before

Highly doubt that will happen Same here, not my industry and I must have been living under the rock since I did not hear about them before : )

The perceived high price on their initial launch seemed to get it off to a shaky start which never recovered. Wish them the best with Maxon.

Interesting! I never tried Autograph; their Logo and website were looking so old, I was not convinced of the 'new tech!' claims. But it's surely a smart move by Maxon to acquire the talent behind it. If I had a wish free? A Redshift one-click-solution to render typical AOVs directly into an AfterEffects-Project, beauty perfectly rebuilt, Color-Setup correct, everything just ready-to-go. (For other comping apps too, of course) Thanks! 🙂

I guess we'll see a $200 increase in Maxon One subscriptions coming later this year. :[ It'll be interesting to see when Red Giant tools get integrated and if C4D will one day render directly in whatever Autograph is morphed into.

https://www.maxon.net/en/article/autograph-acquisition A Message from Left Angle June 5, 2025 Left Angle, the maker of Autograph, was created with a bold vision: to rethink compositing from the ground up and build a modern toolset for motion designers and visual effects artists. We’ve been incredibly proud of what we accomplished — and deeply grateful to the artists, studios, and partners who joined us on that journey. As of today, our business is winding down in its entirety and our team is beginning a new chapter. With this transition, our website and all related channels will go offline. While this chapter is ending, we’re hopeful about what’s ahead and what we can create. We’re working on a path forward and expect to share more in the future. Thank you for your support! – Left Angle For questions, email: leftanglesupport@maxon.net

Yep, Bridge can do that... Settings thusly However in the precise example you gave, then yes it can do it, but you can see below, it currently breaks if we try and connect offset pieces. There we are actually crossing polys half way down it, which is obviously useless, which I will report as a bug, because I think it should be able to do that ! You can see it's got the right idea, but has failed to execute. And so we must instead delete the end faces and do it with Stitch n sew instead. I used the shift modifier for that, which, interestingly, failed in exactly the same way the bridge tool did, so I had to use Ctrl modifier instead - not ideal, but it worked ! This can't put the sexy curvature in tho, and although it is relatively trivial to pop that in manually, but with Bridge tool working as intended we shouldn't have to ! However, to pop that curvature in in a semi-automatic way, we can can always just select the top and bottom edges in that section and Set Flow them, which does OK... So yes, Cinema can do it, but few more steps than a single tool. CBR

Someone posted this on reddit and I was wondering how to get this done without remaking it as a spline, can this be done in C4D with a bridge command or similar?

Ah... had to look it up... 🙂 https://conferenceonarchitecture.com/

Zero sales, everyone was busy playing Mario kart.

@Jakobwagner There is a known issue where that node is not working correctly with modifiers. The reason is that it is meant to be used in object generation, not modification. If you use a spline capsule (which is a generator), then it works properly, see attached scene test add point to spline_0001.c4d

I think Maxon is trying to get into the market of Arch viz and compete with Chaos. Look at AutoDesk - best I can tell from unvetted sources on the internet - there are around 15,000 Maya subscribers vs. 7,5000,000 AutoCAD subscribers. Archviz seems like a good market to go after. Also - Nemetscheck, which owns Maxon, owns Vectorworks, so there is a natural fit there, though it seems they want this new tech to eventually open up to all BIM software. Only time will tell - we should know more at the end of this week after AIA demos. e.

It's early days on this still - they are just marketing and building hype. The first demos will happen June 6th. They just sent emails today looking for potential beta testers. I would guess that the actual product is still a ways off for delivery.

Better move this to Technical -> Nodes Topic.

Looks nice but is there any technical information reguarding the type of features supported ? I see grass but is it polygonal or hair ? I saw smoke but I thing it's post. I saw subsurface scattering but it could be just a luminance texture. What types of GPUs are supported or what types of GPUs support which features.

Maxon just posted their Arch Viz reel. It seems like some of the work in the reel bleeds into interior design and product vis too. Very elegant.

Hi I'm trying to figure out how the Add Point to Spline node works in a Nodes Modifier. I've set up a super simple example, to test it. If I test the Geometry output in the Data Inspector, it is empty. Have anyone had success with this node? Thanks! Jakob Wagner test add point to spline.c4d

Maxon just posted their Arch Viz reel. Is there a lot of work out there for C4D artists in the arch viz space? Or is the reel meant as a teaser for Redshift in Vectorworks?