Autodesk 3ds Max 2013 animation software delivers new rendering, motion graphics, 3D animation, and simulation tools empowering artists to focus more on creative, rather than technical challenges. Try the powerful new creative toolsets for 90 days on your next short-term project or to explore the newest software release.

Adobe After Effects Interoperability
Complete projects in less time with the new Media Sync functionality. It provides two-way transfer of cameras, lights, null objects, plane objects/solids, footage (including footage layering), blend modes, opacity, and effects.

Render Pass System and Photoshop Interoperability
Scenes can now be more easily segmented for downstream compositing. Thanks to an entirely new render pass system, render elements can now be more efficiently created for Autodesk^® Smoke^® 2013 software, Adobe After Effects, Adobe^® Photoshop^® software. A state recorder enables you to capture, edit, and save the current state, while a visual interface shows how compositing and render elements are wired together to create the final result. You can quickly set up and execute multiple render passes from a single file; individual passes can be modified without the need to re-render the whole scene, enhancing productivity.

Slate Compositing Editor
Perform simple compositing operations with the new Slate Compositing Editor. The schematic node-based interface lets you easily wire together rendered layers and passes as well as combine them with compositing nodes (for example: blends and color corrections); the resulting composite can be sent to Adobe After Effects or Adobe Photoshop for further refinement.

ActiveShade Interactive iray Rendering
Experience an interactive creative process for finalizing renderings with new ActiveShade support for the NVIDIA^®iray^® renderer. ActiveShade enables you to iterate more effectively by providing an interactive rendering session that constantly updates as changes are made to cameras, lighting, materials, and geometry. Shorten the feedback loop to more efficiently fine-tune your scene, making it faster and easier to achieve your intended look.

MassFX Enhancements
Gain a more integrated and accurate dynamic toolset, with a wide range of enhancements and additions to the MassFX unified system of simulation solvers. Highlights: a new mCloth module that features tearable fabric and support for dynamic ragdoll hierarchies. Improve overall workflow with constraints, better handling of pivot points, and enhanced UI readability.

Focus on Workflow
With the understanding that small things can make a big difference, 3ds Max 2013 includes a number of improvements: the ability to manipulate the camera when cutting polygons and during the creation process, enhancements to the skin modifier, and a modeless array dialog.

Tabbed Layouts
Create and switch between unlimited viewport layout configurations. Layouts can include both 3D and extended viewports. Easily select a different layout by clicking on its icon, or pressing a hotkey. Share customized View Tabs with other artists by saving and loading presets.

Customizable Workspaces
Configure the workspace to suit your preferences or to fit the task at hand. Select from a choice of default or custom workspaces. Each workspace can have individual settings for menus, toolbars, ribbon, and viewport tab presets; in addition, selecting a new workspace can automatically execute a MAXScript.

Track View Retiming
You can now retime portions of animations to increase or decrease their speed. The retiming is achieved by changing the tangency of the existing animation curve; there is no requirement to have keyframes present in the portion to be retimed, and no extra keyframes are created in the resulting high-quality curve.

Autodesk^® HumanIK^® Interoperability with CAT
You can now convert 3ds Max CAT (Character Animation Toolkit) bipedal characters into characters that are compatible with the Autodesk^® HumanIK^® solver used in Autodesk^® Maya^® 2013 software and Autodesk^®MotionBuilder^® 2013 software in a single step. These portable characters enable you to transfer existing character structure, definition, and animation between the software packages in order to take advantage of particular feature sets. Animation changes created in Maya or MotionBuilder can be updated back onto the original CAT character in 3ds Max, facilitating a round-trip workflow.

*90-day fixed term license is not renewable and cannot be upgraded. Offer available in U.S. and Canada only from November 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013. Limit one per customer. Fixed term software is subject to the terms and conditions of the license and services agreement that accompanies the software.

For more information, please refer to this FAQ