3ds Max was well represented at AU. On the main stage, they showed the interactive lighting design capabilities of 3ds Max/Design in use for an art gallery. Then, the AutoCAD & ME Keynote (yes, that is not a spelling mistake), had a great session in front of hundreds showing the work Mariott was doing using 3ds Max to replace expensive physical prototypes of rooms and renovations. Then, the big event, about 20 minutes of Avatar (the movie) presented in 3D with full, body-shaking, Dolby sound. This was a clip that was specially cut for the event by James Cameron and Joe Landau. Joe was there to do the presentation. It blew my mind - the 3D was was crystal clear and totally sucked me into the world. And what a world it was! I understand 3ds Max was used with Maya and Motionbuilder at Lightstorm (at least according to one of the key Lightstorm employees I talked to).

I then gave a presentation to about 200 people that laid out our Design/Vis focus along with the basic elements of Excalibur. For those of you who are hearing those words for the first time, Excalibur, or XBR, is the restructuring of 3ds Max. We decided that for 3ds Max to remain relevant for the next 20 years, we'd have to restructure a substantial portion of it. Instead of trying to do this in a single release (and blowing up everyone's training/knowledge) we've decided to do it in 3 major phases. These phases do NOT equate to releases and we're not releasing much more information than this. I will say that our first phase was mostly delivered in 3ds Max 2010, but some key parts didn't make the release. We're not releasing much more of the details publicly (sorry).

Finally, we had Showcase, Project Newport and 3ds Max User Advisory Councils and I think it is safe to say that we blew some minds with our plans. For 3ds Max/Design, we took people through many of the key "big projects" for XBR. We then asked them to help us prioritize the big ticket items. One quickly popped to the top because everyone thought it was a game changer for the industry. Unfortunately we can't tell you what that is quite yet, but I hope those that were there can at least share their enthusiasm even though they are legally prevented from sharing the details. What's really interesting, is that we demo'd something else that I think really rocked everyone's expectations regarding future rendering directions. The Rendering Revolution is definitely here and I think you'll be seeing soon how 3ds Max/Design is leading it (with the help of all our partners).

Hang on, it's about to get interesting...