3DMM

3DMM aka 3d Movie Maker, was released by Microsoft in 1995.
It was created as a simple program for kids, letting them quickly create "movies" by putting together stock objects, actors, and sounds.

Despite the age of the program, and it's target demographic, movies are still being created by a large community of slightly older users, attracted by it's ease of use, and manage to create complex plot lines and action scenes within a program designed for 8 year olds.

The subject of Microsoft making a sequel to this program is often brought up on various message boards, but Microsoft seems to have no interest in continuing the product line.

(This is probably due to the weak sales of 3DMM in most markets.
Most current 3DMM "Directors" received their CD's when Microsoft was distributing them with new PC's from Gateway and Compaq)

Recently (January 2002) an attempt is being made at creating a unoffical fan-supported semi-sequel, called Movie Maker Plus. (or MM+/MMP for short, paralleling 3DMM's simple acronym)

3D Movie Maker, abbreviated to 3DMM by a current and longstanding online community of around 300 'moviemakers' is a product produced and released by Microsoft on PC CDROM. The product, originally intended for 8-12 year old users allowed budding young directors to place pre-fabricated scenes, actors and props together and animate them along a timeline to create movies.

The shelf-life of 3DMM was very short, despite it being marketed on TV in areas (including the United Kingdom), and the product was also supplied with new PCs. The product was either a complete hit or an absolute miss with its audience.

Because there was very little scope to go beyond the pre-fabricated content which initially restricted 3DMM in terms of its freedom of creation, users in its still growing online community have, through extended use, taken the program to levels even the programs developers would have never dreamed possible. As an example, prefab-scenes with fixed immobile camera angles have been almost completely phased out with custom built scenes primarily made of different coloured 3D shapes, which can then be moved individually over 3DMM's timeline to produce the illusion of, for example a panning camera-angle.

The 3DMM community, still running strong 6 years after the product's initial release, continues to swap movies over the Internet and share hints, tips and reviews and shows no sign of ceasing soon.