Autodesk Accelerates Workflows Across Creative Tools data-src=https://creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/avatars/263018/5fa08c562aaf4-bpthumb.jpg data-srcset=https://creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/avatars/263018/5fa08c561c0e7-bpfull.jpg 2x class=lazyload avatar avatar-80 photo height=80 width=80 />
Brie Clayton March 24, 2021
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Autodesk's collaboration with Pixar, Animal Logic, Luma Pictures, and Blue Sky comes to fruition with USD now seamlessly integrated in Maya. 3ds Max gains workflow efficiency and rendering power.
Autodesk unveiled updates to Maya, 3ds Max, and MotionBuilder today, bringing artists throughout the creative pipeline powerful new tools that accelerate and streamline their workflows. Among these updates is the much-anticipated USD plugin for Maya. First announced at SIGGRAPH 2018 as a joint effort with Pixar, Animal Logic, Luma Pictures, and Blue Sky Studios, USD is now seamlessly integrated in Maya, enabling artists to load and edit massive datasets at lightning speed. Maya's animation, modeling, and rendering toolsets also see significant updates, bringing even more power, flexibility, and creative freedom to the daily work of professional artists.
data-src=https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/24181547/Yellow_robots1200-1024x566.png alt= class=lazyload wp-image-2406677 data-srcset=https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/24181547/Yellow_robots1200-1024x566.png 1024w, https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/24181547/Yellow_robots1200-300x166.png 300w, https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/24181547/Yellow_robots1200-768x424.png 768w, https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/24181547/Yellow_robots1200-624x345.png 624w, https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/24181547/Yellow_robots1200.png 1200w data-sizes=(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px />Maya USDWith this update, Maya artists gain:
Seamless USD Integration: Full USD integration allows artists to load multiple gigabytes of data within seconds and work directly with the data using Maya's native tools. Robust referencing functionality, nondestructive data editing workflows, and support for complex variants on top of USD increase pipeline efficiency and collaboration and help teams scale for high-volume data workflows.
Powerful Animation Tools: Animation tool updates help artists animate faster and in fewer clicks. A new Ghosting Editor allows artists to quickly see animation spacing over time, making it easier to pinpoint necessary edits and how poses work together in animations. Improvements to the Time Editor, including support for cached playback and additive animation clips, and new filters in the Graph Editor bring artists a smoother animation experience overall.
Modern Rigging Workflows: This update introduces several procedural, topology-independent rigging workflows. Component Tags and Deformer Falloffs provide modern methods for defining membership and weighting, as well as seamlessly sharing that data between geometry and deformers. Maya's extensive deformation toolset also gets bigger with new Solidify and Morph deformers.
Community-Inspired Modeling Updates: A new Sweep Mesh tool enables artists to procedurally generate geometry and adjust attributes with a single click. Using the new Game Vertex Count plugin, game artists are able to more accurately estimate how assets in Maya impact their in-game vertex count budgets before exporting them to game engines. Additional updates enhance the overall modeling experience and include pivot improvements; an upgraded extrude thickness tool; faster lasso selection; and match, translation, and scaling enhancements to provide artists with precise control over scene transforms.
Fast and Flexible Rendering with Arnold 6.2: Standard in Maya, Arnold 6.2 introduces new imagers for light mixing, bloom effects, and denoising for an upgraded post-processing experience. Additional benefits include GPU improvements, enhanced USD support, and integration with OpenColorIO v2, enabling artists to take advantage of OCIO's native implementation of ACES (Academy Color Encoding System) and processing improvements directly in Arnold.
Python 3: Python 3 is the new default for Maya on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.
Improved First Experience: A faster and more modern user experience offers reduced startup time and customizable preferences, splash screen improvements, and intuitive script editor enhancements that help artists work more efficiently and with greater control.
data-src=https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/24181655/maya-sweep-mesh1200-1024x576.png alt= class=lazyload wp-image-2406678 data-srcset=https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/24181655/maya-sweep-mesh1200-1024x576.png 1024w, https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/24181655/maya-sweep-mesh1200-300x169.png 300w, https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/24181655/maya-sweep-mesh1200-768x432.png 768w, https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/24181655/maya-sweep-mesh1200-624x351.png 624w, https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/24181655/maya-sweep-mesh1200.png 1200w data-sizes=(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px />Maya Sweep Mesh Increasing support for open-source standards is a huge area of focus for Autodesk across industry verticals. The M&E team has put a great deal of effort into our USD integration as the standard is proving crucial for innovation in visual effects and animation, today and into the future, said Jocelyn Moffatt, Industry Marketing Manager, Entertainment. Across tools, our goal is to simplify the complexities of working with massive datasets, aid in collaboration between artists and studios, and help teams push their creative limits by managing technical pipeline challenges.
