Autodesk upgrades AREA

Autodesk has boosted its online community AREA with an overhaul of the main site with lots of added content.

AREA was opened last year and has in that time built a membership of 150,000 registered users, all of which are users of Autodesk’s 3ds Max, Maya 3D, MotionBuilder, VIZ 3D and FBX file format.

The site’s content, a mix of tutorials, tips, forums and galleries, is largely user-generated – but Autodesk has upgraded the site itself following a successful first 12 months.

Additions include an entirely new cross-platform architecture that supports Windows, Macintosh and Linux OSs, and a new tutorial system that lets users quickly and easily lay out and submit tutorials.

60 new user-generated tutorials for 3ds Max and Maya, covering game development, post-production and design visualization, have also been uploaded and a new gallery and script, materials and plug-in sharing facility have been added, too.