Autodesk Maya
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Autodesk Maya Editor's Review
If you ask people familiar with 3D animation and modeling about a powerful and versatile app for compositing, creating special effects or eye catching animation, many of them will recommend Maya. As it is, the software has been used for TV and film work for a long time. Now under ownership of Autodesk, which also sells its arch rival 3ds Max, Maya has undergone an overhaul to make it capable of catering to growing needs of users. The new release of Maya comes with enhancements in key segments including modeling tools, rendering, texturing and performance boost. You can buy it as a stand-alone app and also as part of Autodesk’s Entertainment Creation Suite.
Maya can run on Windows XP and higher versions and its 64 bit variants can also run on selected Linux distributions. It would be advisable to install Maya on a PC equipped with powerful multi core CPU and plenty of RAM. Anything in excess of 4 GB would be ideal to get lag free performance. As is the case with high end 3D animation and modeling apps, Maya will benefit from a powerful OpenGL compliant GPU in your PC. While installing Maya, you get allied Autodesk apps like Matchmover and Directconnect. It is an expensive app and upgrade prices are not cheap either.
Like is earlier versions, the new release of Maya greets users with a welcome screen which contains shortcuts to Lessons on fundamentals and links to online resources on Maya. A seasoned user will notice a few interface enhancements including useful additions to Viewport 2.0. To get the most out of this app, your PC needs a fast and powerful GPU. While the enhancements are praiseworthy, beginners will need a lot of time to master nuances of Maya.
Almost all 3D apps offer basic geometric shapes and building blocks to form complex models and animations and Maya is no exception either. It has plenty of options for modelers. You get sub-Ds, surfaces, NURBS and polygon to work with. The right click brings up first menu, giving users choice to start with specific aspects of mesh. By pressing and holding space bar you get greeted with a wide set of menus, ideal when you work with maximized viewport. While changes to the workspace and customization are useful, in some situations dealing with plenty of options can prove to be fussy.
The interface tweaks done to Hypergraph window makes creating materials easier in Maya. The Bullet Physics module of Maya is another noteworthy addition. It is simple yet powerful and can be used to simulate both soft and rigid bodies. The Bullet solver can leverage OpenCL acceleration and users with compliant GPUS will be benefited.
In this release of Maya, lighting and texturing tools have also received a facelift. The Maya team has enhanced the node editor to simplify workflow. In the enhanced interface you get to see what you need. In simple layout, you get to see just the nodes. You may also choose to display nodes, connections as well as available connectable attributes. Since the node editor does not have the hypershade window anymore, and incorporates connection and hypershade editor, workflow gets simplified.
Maya’s revamped viewport rendering system named Viewport 2.0 offers real-time feedback of material, lights and cameras. Now, users can preview different lighting types and blur effects in the viewport. This not only speeds up workflow but you do not need to render frequently after making changes to various settings. The new viewport is smoother and faster than earlier. The animation motion trails may not be exactly new to Maya but they do deserve one mention. They can be viewed and tweaked in the viewport even with depth of field and motion blur applied.
Maya has always received applauds from critics and uses alike for its excellent provisions for dealing with fur and hair. The acclaimed Maya Hair is no longer there as its successor Nucleus hair solver has been deployed. The revamped Maya nHair makes interactions with other nDynamics more fluid and natural. For example, you can use Maya’s nHair system to generate field of grass and then make a ball bounce on the field, while moving grasses as it would in real life. Hairy creatures can be created and their hair will react to environment more naturally owing to this system. It would be great if the Autodesk team chooses to update Maya Fur which incidentally has not been upgraded for quite some time.
The hardcore animators and Character riggers will appreciate Maya’s heat map skinning feature. With this feature, you can now attach geometry to skeletons in a simpler way. Human IK bipedal skeleton of Maya has been tweaked and this makes animating characters easier. In the revised interface, users can view characters from new angles making character control simpler.
When you work with a massive feature laden 3D app like Maya, rendering scenes with lots of geometry and effects cannot be evaded sometimes. In such situations, even the most powerful PC in a setup can respond sluggishly. However, owing to usage of Alembic file format in Maya handling large amounts of 3d Objects become easier. The Alembic-based Pipeline Cache feature results in overall performance enhancements including quicker scene loading, real-time playback of topology and geometry.
Positive Points:
- Extremely customizable interface and viewport
- Revamped Viewport 2.0 reduces frequent rendering needs
- Hair simulation updates are praiseworthy
- Node editor changes save time and labor
Negative Points:
- Still a huge lot of things to learn
- GUI can still be fussy
- Quite a costly app
Conclusion:
Maya’s newest iteration does not contain many ground shattering features but the changes are nifty and save time. As it is, the changes are more suited for teams of animators and rigging artists in professional setups than individual users. The new bullet dynamics produces accurate results and Maya’s revamped nHair also deserves applaud for lifelike simulation creation. The Pipeline Cache feature based on Alembic file format can speed up workflow significantly and same can be said about heat map skinning. However, there is no denying the reality that sheer overabundance of tools and features can be overwhelming for some users, especially the beginners in 3D. While the workspace in Maya is immensely customizable, it would be nice to see some preset workspaces, similar in line with Photoshop.
Rating: 3.5/5
Autodesk Maya Publisher's Description
Autodesk® Maya® 3D animation software delivers a comprehensive creative feature set with tools for animation, modeling, simulation, rendering, matchmoving, and compositing on a highly extensible production platform. For visual effects, game development, post production, or other 3D animation projects, Maya offers toolsets to help meet demanding production requirements. Maya 2013 adds tools that help facilitate parallel workflows and complexity handling; powerful new creative toolsets; and productivity enhancements to help you create higher quality content quickly.
Features:
Autodesk® Maya® 2013 software delivers practical toolsets to help create and maintain the modern, open pipelines you need to address today's challenging 3D animation, visual effects, game development, and post production projects. Powerful new toolsets for dynamic simulation, animation, and rendering offer new levels of creativity, while everyday productivity enhancements help you finish faster. In addition, the Open Data initiative introduced in Maya 2013 offers tools to help facilitate parallel workflows and better complexity handling.
3D Modeling
Autodesk® Maya® software offers a rich feature set for 3D modeling, including NURBS, Subdivision Surfaces, and an extensive Polygon toolset.
Polygon and Subdivision Mesh Modeling
Autodesk Maya provides a production-proven and intuitive toolset for creating and editing polygon meshes, including:
* Bridge, poke, cut, wedge, bevel, extrude, chamfer vertex, extrude along a curve, mirror cut, edge loop, edge ring, slide edge, and pick-walk tools
* The ability to preview or render smoothly subdivided meshes while editing a lower-resolution proxy or cage (subdivision meshes support variable creasing)
* True soft selection, preselection highlighting, and camera-based selection culling
* Polygon reduction, data cleanup, blind data tagging, and level-of-detail tools for scene optimization
* The ability to transfer UV, color-per-vertex, and vertex position information between polygon meshes of differing topologies
Surface Modeling
Maya offers two methods for creating mathematically smooth surfaces that can be shaped using relatively few control vertices: NURBS and hierarchical Subdivision Surfaces.
* Subdivision Surfaces can have different levels of detail in different regions, enabling you to add complexity only where needed.
* NURBS Surfaces can be attached, detached, aligned, stitched together, extended, filleted, or rebuilt with a high degree of control over parameterization and continuity.
* NURBS and Subdivision Surfaces can be converted to polygon meshes, and vice versa.
* Precise spline-based curve and surface construction tools include lofting, birail, beveling, extrusion, trim, boundary, offset, Booleans, rounding, and square.
UVs, Normals, and Color-Per-Vertex
Beyond the position of vertices that define their shape, meshes can carry essential data for software, interactive, or in-game 3D rendering. To manage this, Maya offers:
* A streamlined workflow for creative texturing - including UV creation and editing, auto-projection, interactive relaxation, layout, lattice, and smudge tools
* Multiple UV sets that support separate texture coordinates for separate texture channels
* Per-instance UV sets that enable a single mesh to be used to represent multiple objects, reducing scene overhead
* Multiple sets of animatable color-per-vertex (CPV), prelighting, user-defined normals, and normal map generation suitable for game design
Free download from Shareware Connection - Autodesk® Maya® 3D animation software delivers an end-to-end creative workflow
Version: 2014 | Size: 1572864 KB | Platform: WinOther
Released Date: 14-06-2012 | Rating: 5 | Title: Autodesk Maya
Author Url: http://www.autodesk.com
Program Info Url: http://www.autodesk.com
Download Url: http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-maya/free-trial
Screenshot Url: http://www.3dworldmag.com/files/2012/04/autodesk_maya_2013.jpg
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