Microsoft open-sources 3D Movie Maker code

3D Movie Maker. © Microsoft.

Twenty-seven years ago, in 1995, Microsoft launched a program called 3D Movie Maker which let people easily make basic 3D animated films at 6 or 8 frames per second. Microsoft never really circled back to this software, until now. Scott Hanselman, Microsoft’s Developer Division Community Manager, announced that the company was spilling the code for 3D Movie Maker, posting it on GitHub in a read-only repository under an MIT license. Not that Microsoft has grand designs for 3D Movie Maker — someone simply asked for it. Back in April on Twitter, Foone Turing asked Microsoft to publish the source code for 3D Movie Maker because they wanted to expand its functionalities while keeping it as straightforward and easy to use as it ever was. And just like that, Hanselman and Jeff Wilcox, Microsoft’s Open Source Programs Office Manager, worked with Microsoft’s legal department to make it happen.

Ars Technica asked Hanselman why Microsoft was bothering to publish the 3D Movie Maker code after all these years. “Because there’s never been an app like it,” Hanselman said. “Even now 27 years later, there is a community excited about this tool.” 3D Movie Maker has a small but active and enthusiastic user group that is still putting out 3D content using the vintage software.

⇨ Ars Technica, Andrew Cunningham, “Microsoft open-sourced the code for 1995’s 3D Movie Maker because someone asked.”

2022-05-04