The pre-history of Autodesk 3D Studio and Discreet 3ds Max

By Martin Doudoroff
Edited by Monica J. Smith

Introduction

This Web site documents some moderately obscure computer graphics software history: a suite of animation products produced in the late 1980’s for the Atari ST personal computer platform. Although the fact is not widely known, this Atari software, published by a defunct computer magazine called Antic, directly preceded and led to the Autodesk 3D Studio and Discreet 3ds max products used by thousands of people today.

The articles herein basically comprise an oral history: the information is drawn from interviews and hands-on exploration of the software, running under emulation or on original equipment.

The site is organized into a chronological history, followed by in-depth discussions of each major product.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to my editor, Monica Smith, for making this documentation more respectable.

Thanks to Gary Yost, Tom Hudson, Mark Kimball, Jim Kent, Andy Eddy, Maurice Molyneaux, Boris Tsikanovsky, Darrel Anderson, and Jack Powell for their enthusiastic participation in this project, which is really their project.

Thanks to James Green and Heidi Brumbaugh for their assistance.

Special thanks to Tom Hudson, Corey Kaup, Mike Mee (Liverpool), Tim Forcade, Richard Davey (The Little Green Desktop) and Kevin Savetz (Classic Computer Magazine Archive) for their invaluable technical assistance and resources.

Contents

General History (main document)

1. Antic Magazine & The Catalog <— START HERE!
2. A new software culture
3. Now, in 3-D!
4. Making it move
5. Make Art
6. Going “Cyber”
7. Moving Forward

Each software product in-depth

• CAD-3D & CAD-3D 2.0 (Cyber Studio)
• Cybermate (Cyber Studio)
• Cyber Control
• Postscript: Cyber Control after the Atari
• Spectrum 512 (and Unispec)
• Cyber Paint
• Postscript: Cyber Paint after the Atari
• Cyber VCR
• Cyber Sculpt
• Postscript: Cyber Sculpt after the Atari
• Cyber Texture
• Future Design, Architectural Design, Human Design and Microbot Design Disks
• Cartoon Design & Video Titling Design Disks
• Other related products
• 3D-Fonts I
• 3D-Fonts II
• Genesis
• 3D Developers Disk for Cyber Studio
• 3D Plotter & Printer Drivers
• Anti-aliaser
• G.I.S.T. G.I. Sound Tool

Additional material

• What Might Have Been
• QuickTime Gallery
• Timeline
• About this history/the author

Next page: I. Antic Magazine & The Catalog

Home   Top   

Text copyright © 2002 Martin Doudoroff. Imagery copyrights belong to various different people.