gmax for Not Yet Techies

gmax is a software tool that everybody who aspires to design games should download and learn to use. gmax is the "lite" version of the game design software used by most professional game designers (together with Character Studio), gdsmax.

Of course gmax does not have all the power of gdsmax -- it's free while the paid version costs $2,500-$3,000 so we should just be grateful that the company is so willing to help aspiring game designers that it makes this download available for nothing. They're certainly not obligated to do so.

And it does have a lot of the power of gdsmax. If you can learn to make great fantasy landscapes and character animations with it, you'll know you can take advantage of the full-strength professional version and whether that's worth up to $3000 to you or not.

The company also sells compatible rights to game sellers. This means that you can use gmax to design your own additional layers to these games. You can use this aspect for your own personal pleasure, to extend games you enjoy playing to make them even more difficult and fun, to astound your friends at how you have a more extensive version of a game than they do and also as a sort of game design portfolio to prove to prospective employers how good you are.

1. Modeler
2. Animator
3. Effects Specialist

One tool left out of gmax is NURBS -- Non Uniform Rational Bi-Spines, which is good for creating organic characters such as flowers.

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