ShapeShifter 3D is a low polygon count modeler designed specifically for Macromedia Director 8.5. It is completely integrated with the Director environment, and models can be exported as Shockwave 3D (.w3d) files directly to the internal cast of your Director movie. ShapeShifter 3D models have the extension .ss3D, and can be saved to disk to be modified at a later time. It is important to understand that ShapeShifter 3D can not open or edit Shockwave3D files since w3D files are optimized for streaming and playback, not as a raw model format. Models can be created by scratch or imported from other 3D modeling tools. ShapeShifter 3D is optimized for the production of models with less than 5.000 faces, appropriated for real-time applications. It supports the definition of surface material properties that are translated to Director 8.5 shaders. It also supports the creation of texture coordinates for a texture image applied to the diffuse material channel of the object. Finally ShapeShifter 3D allows the creation of a bones structure that can be linked to your model.

As a low polygon tool ShapeShifter 3D limits the number of vertices and polygons that can be used. Some of the restrictions are listed below:

Maximum number of vertices: 8192

Maximum number of faces: 16384

Maximum number of groups: 128

Maximum number of materials: 128

Maximum number of joints: 128