First released in 1996, Extreme 3D was Macromedia’s next-generation desktop 3D solution, combining the capabilities of their previous products—MacroModel, Swivel 3D and Three-D.
Extreme 3D targeted graphic artists, multimedia developers and video professionals with its CAD-accurate, spline-based modeler, fast, high-quality scanline renderer, built-in distributed network rendering and cross-platform file compatibility.
Extreme 3D also included a professional post-production compositing tool, Extreme FX, which enabled users to composite finished still and animated clips for use with non-linear video editing applications.
Macromedia released a second version of Extreme 3D the following year before it was discontinued as part of a larger company product restructure to focus on the web.
You could say Macromedia's Extreme 3D joins the modeling tools of MacroModel with the rendering and animation features of Three-D. But it's more than simply the sum of its predecessors; Extreme 3D is a fully integrated working environment in which excellent modeling resources complement production quality rendering and animation tools. Consequently animation effects that would have been cumbersome (or impossible) to produce using MacroModel and Three-D in tandem are easy in Extreme 3D. And the program's professional-level amenities —such as the ability to sort tracks in the animation sequencer and built-in distributed rendering — let you use every CPU on your network to churn out the final animation images.
Extremely Adaptable
Like MacroModel, Extreme 3D is an excellent modeler that can produce complex, numerically precise, splinebased objects. You start by drawing 2-D outlines or importing outlines from illustration programs, then apply the extrusion, lathing, sweeping, and skinning tools to produce 3-D objects.
The program gives you three levels of object editability, displaying a greater or lesser number of control points for the object. Depending on the editing level, you can use the twisting, bending, tapering, and skewing controls to produce subtle surface deformations or deform entire objects. At the deepest level, you can manipulate the individual vertices defining the objects surface mesh. A complement of construction tools helps you assemble objects into complex models. Some of Extreme 3D's highlights include flexible, easy-to-use rendering tools; a materials editor that lets you customize the nine built-in procedural textures to produce limitless variations; and the ability to apply texture maps to object surfaces and produce a variety' of lighting conditions, such as light-fall off effects and spotlight dust cones. A CD containing Wraptures textures from Form & Function is included.
This version of Extreme 3D doesn't support QuickDraw 3D (look for support in the next major release). Instead, a Gouraud shader is included with the onscreen rendering options. This shader provides an excellent representation of smooth object surfaces and fast response to modeling changes — nearly as fast as unacceleratcd QuickDraw 3D, It creates final output with a Phong tenderer, the professional animator's engine of choice for speedy production images. Final Render To Screen lets you preview rendering output — to see the effect of lighting changes, for example — and shows just how fast this renderer is. Graphic artists may miss ray tracing, but for animation and multimedia work demanding 30 images for every second, Phong is perfect.
Animation pros will appreciate Extreme 3D’s built-in distributed rendering; you simply install the program on each networked Mac (although you can model on only one computer), and the program recognizes the remote machines as rendering servers for the main station. It even lets you render on mixed-platform networks, provided you have both Mac and Windows versions of Extreme 3D.
Extremely Animated
Extreme 3D's sequencer displays tracks for all animatable properties of every object, including geometric transformations, surface-texture changes, lighting alterations, and camera motion. It also lets you sort: the list of tracks so that only those objects and properties pertaining to the work at hand are displayed. For example, you can isolate the tracks containing positioning information for lights or the color tracks of object-texturing materials; that's a real help when you're creating complex animation sequences.
Although Extreme 3D is a versatile animator and has a decent collection of object-linking tools, it doesn't support inverse kinematics. Realistic, articulated, motion effects need to he produced step-by-step; you can't just pull a model’s hand and have the rest of the arm move properly, Extreme 3D also lacks pre-scripted animation routines, such as the animation assistants that smooth out camera moves in Specular Infini-D or the extensions that produce bounce and explosion effects in Ray Dream Studio and Strata Studio Pro, Special-effects plug-ins are expected in future versions of Extreme 3D, but for now you have to break up the model and move the pieces through space to get an explosion effect. Although that's the kind of control professionals need, Extreme 3D might not be the best choke right now for animation novices in a hurry to blow things up.
While the manual is a good, solid reference and the movie lessons on the CD provide a nice introduction, the tutorial booklet only scratches the surface of the program. And although Extreme 3D runs well on a Power Mac, it needs 19MB of free memory to run comfortably.
The Last Word
Extreme 3D is a good choice for graphic artists, animation producers, and multi media developers who are looking for precise modeling controls (and who can live without inverse kinematics, special-effects plug-ins, and QuickDraw 3D support). And its price is half that of either MacroModel or Three-D. All things considered, that's a pretty good marriage.
Domingo Martinez, Carlos. (July 1996). Extreme 3D. Macworld. (pg. 60).
Macromedia Extreme 3D
Macromedia, Inc.
Applications
out of 10 (1 vote)
110 / 
2014-04-14 / 
2017-08-28 / 
cfaebe5f8b76fd972011852a88349d67dbd1316a / 
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mmextr3d.sit
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Basilisk II
