Key New Features in Autodesk Maya 2012 Software “With Maya 2012, we have continued our long-term focus on improving production efficiency as well as real-time creative iteration with enhancements to the Maya viewport addressing new trends in previsualization, virtual moviemaking and games prototyping,” said Marc Petit, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment. The new release also includes single-step workflows to enable users to move 3D data directly between the latest versions of Maya, Autodesk MotionBuilder, Autodesk Mudbox and Autodesk Softimage Interactive Creative Environment (ICE) for better pipeline integration. (NASDAQ: ADSK) announced that Autodesk Maya 2012 3D modeling, animation, visual effects, rendering and compositing software now contains powerful new toolsets for previsualization and games prototyping, extended simulation capabilities and better pipeline integration. Other new features will already be familiar to users of the Maya 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack, including the new Substance Smart Textures library and built-in Craft Animation Tools camera rigs.
The Sequencer has also been updated – something that may reflect Autodesk’s increasing focus on marketing Maya in tandem with its Smoke for Mac OS X editorial finishing software – adding a configurable spreadsheet view to reorder clips, edit in and out points and change camera assignments as well as support for multi-track audio and the ability to output multiple shots as a single sequence. Maya’s animation toolset has been enhanced, with the addition of editable motion trails providing a rapid way to create and preview animation directly in the viewport. “The high-fidelity viewport, enhancements to Nucleus and the overall performance improvements have made Maya 2012 more flexible, powerful and modern,” said Peter Shipkov, technical director at Digital Domain. The Nucleus simulation framework benefits from improved threading for cloth and particles and faster self-collisions. However, unlike Max, Maya 2012 also integrates Pixelux Entertainment’s Digital Molecular Matter technology, used on games like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and movies like Avatar.Įxisting simulation systems will also receive an update, with Maya Fluids being extended with tools to create splashing and pouring liquids, in addition to ocean surfaces.
As with 3ds Max 2012, the new release will integrate Nvidia’s PhysX engine for setting up dynamic rigid body simulations directly in the viewport (although initially only in the Windows edition of the software). Preview: Node-based render pass management Note: this is a general technology preview, not specifically Maya 2012. Preview: Viewport DoF and multisample antialiasing in action The software will also feature a new node-based system for setting up and editing multi-pass renders via the mental ray engine. Maya 2012, which is scheduled to ship next month, will extend Maya 2011’s Viewport 2.0 display to support interactive depth of field, multisample antialiasing and ambient occlusion. Maya 2012's updated Viewport 2.0 display supports depth of field and multisample antialiasing.Īutodesk has revealed that the next release of Maya will feature major updates to the viewport display, simulation framework and animation tools.