Few days ago, Scott Hanselmann, Community Manager of the Microsoft Developers Division, made it known through an announcement that Microsoft took the decision to release the source code of 3D Movie Maker and is releasing it to Github in a read-only repository under an MIT license.
The source code was released not because Microsoft has big plans for 3D Movie Maker, but because someone requested it.
Foone Turing, a self-styled "hardware and software necromancer", asked Microsoft to release the source code for 3D Movie Maker last April because they wanted to "extend and develop it." Given this, Hanselman and Jeff Wilcox, director of the office of open source programs at Microsoft, took matters into their own hands and worked with the Microsoft legal department to make this happen.
For those who are new to 3D Movie Maker, you should know that is a Microsoft product that was released in 1995 by the Microsoft Kids division. The same year that the original Toy Story movie proved that 3D computer animation was possible, people were able to install software on their personal computers that could produce crude but creative 3D animated movies at 6 to 8 frames per second. second.
3D Movie Maker (commonly abbreviated as 3DMM) is a computer program for children developed by the Microsoft Kids subsidiary of Microsoft Home in 1995. With this program, users can make movies by placing 3D characters and props in pre-recorded environments and adding actions, sound effects, music, text, voice, and special effects.
The program features two help characters that guide users through the show's various roles: the character McZee (played by Michael Shapiro) provides assistance throughout the studio, while his assistant Melanie provides various other tutorials. In Nickelodeon 3D Movie Maker, Stick Stickly guides the user.
Apart from releasing Doraemon and Nickelodeon specific versions of Movie Maker later on, Microsoft has never used this software again until now.
The 3D rendering engine used in 3D Movie Maker is called BRender and was used in Argonaut Software's mid-90s PC games such as Carmageddon and FX Fighter. Turing also received permission to release BRender's code under the same MIT license as 3D Movie Maker in early April, after seeking permission from Jez San, former CEO of Argonaut Software.
3D Movie Maker is also based on BRender, a 3D graphics engine created by Argonaut Software.. Models and backgrounds were done by Illumin8 Digital Pictures (a now-defunct graphics studio) using Softimage modeling software, while cinematic intro and assist sequences were done by Productions Jarnigoine, a now-dormant production company founded by Jean-Jacques tremble. In 1998, a user named Space Goat created the site 3dmm.com which allows users to download movies and mods for 3DMM. Many 3DMM enthusiasts still use 3dmm.com.
Microsoft released the source code of the program under the MIT license, after a request from Twitter user Foone a month before. When asked why Microsoft bothered to make the code for 3D Movie Maker available after all these years, "because there's never been an app like it," Hanselman replied.
Hey friends – we've open sourced the code to 1995's Microsoft 3D Movie Maker https://t.co/h4mYSKRrjK Thanks to @jeffwilcox and the Microsoft OSS office as well our friends in legal and those who continue to put up with me being a nudzh. Thank you @foone for the idea! enjoy. https://t.co/6wBAkjkeIP
—Scott Hanselman?? (@shanselman) May 4, 2022
Even now, 25 years later, there is a community excited about this tool.” 3D Movie Maker still has a small but active and enthusiastic user base that is still producing content. The open source of the application could lead to all sorts of forked experimental builds, but Turing has planned specific updates that they also plan to release under an open source license.
These enhancements will include updated versions of the BRender engine and 3D Movie Maker. that work natively on modern systems, as well as 3D Movie Maker Plus which removes the application's 256-color limit, improves audio support, adds native video export features, and more. The goal is to extend the functionality of the software while keeping it as simple and easy to use as the original.
You can check the source code at following link