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3DS for Retired People

3DS for Retired People

This is probably a bad idea, I don't even know why I'm doing this, but you don't know if you don't ask. 

 

I really wish there was a low-cost stand-alone version of 3DS available for casual use by older guys who are just making models and animations for fun.  I don't mean a scaled-back version like Tinkercad.  I mean a real version for people who want to use cameras with actual settings and FOV, create material libraries, photorealism, and video just like one could do with 3DS. 

 

I never used 3DS commercially, but I had access to 3DS in the 1990's working as a publisher, graphics and website consultant, programmer, and designer.  I loved it.  I spent almost all of my free time building models and mats.  I taught a free private class in 1994 or so for kids interested in understanding CAD, because I felt like the USA was going to lose all of its design jobs to Asia given that every asian kid from age 9 up had access to pirated versions of 3DSr3 and ACADr12, but american kids didn't have access to design software until college age.  Teaching american kids engineering and mechanical drawing should be a US national security objective. 

 

I haven't used it since 3DS Max, except a few times when some small company would ask me to help beginners learn the basics, as a favor, not a paid thing.  I would like to have something like 3DS today, because I really don't like any of the options and I'm retired from that industry, I don't want to learn new techniques. 

 

However, I would only use it maybe 3 times a year.  My use case would usually be something like a friend asking me to explain things, like the relationship between ISO, F-Stop, and Shutter Speed.  In the 90's I would have taken a weekend to build a model showing the exact relationships and where to focus to get the sharpest image based on how people were arranged, rendered an animation, then popped up a website.  These days, I feel like it should be easier, but its not worth paying a monthly fee for something that I'd only be doing as a hobby at best.  If I could pay a one-time price, like $150 or so, I might do it.  I could sort of justify it to myself by thinking of it as entertainment, about the price of a nice dinner with a group of colleagues.  

 

Another use case would be a colleague asking me to generate a 3D model for a business idea which we all know he's not really going to do, its just for fun.  That's the point.  I would never do this for profit, because my time is worth more than that.  I would only do it for fun, just to have something creative to do with friends and have something to show off on Facebook.  For people like me, it would never be worth it to pay a subscription fee.  

 

I have really missed not being able to use 3DS all these years.  3DS was totally intuitive to me.  I've tried nearly every free design program, and have not found an alternative that I like.  Are there enough people like me out there to be a viable market?  Is there a way to provide 3DS to people like me, that would not cost a lot or interfere with current monetization methods?   

1 Comment
lightcube
Advisor

Not 100% what you are asking, but almost. Have you seen 3ds Max Indie yet? It's currently an annual fee, but close to the price you mentioned.

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