Maya Entertainment Creation Suite 2010 Review: New Flexibility
When Autodesk started gobbling up all the major 3D applications, waves of worry washed through the community of artists using those applications. Thankfully, the fears have been unfounded and instead of killing off products and making one new supper application, they improved the tools to work together better than ever through FBX file exchange, and continue to improve the core tools with great new features. The new Maya Entertainment Creation Suite 2010 options allow for flexibility in tool choice and workflow for artists and delivering less work for IT and accounting when it comes to licensing and installation.
Maya Entertainment Creation Suite 2010 gets you Maya, MotionBuilder and Mudbox all under one license and at a cheaper price (SRP of $4,995), which is a big deal for the smaller vfx and gaming studios. Most of the studios I have worked with had Max or Maya installed but also eventually needed to add MotionBuilder and Mudbox. Trying to get extra budget and IT time, in the middle of a project, for software was a barrier that has been removed with these new suites.
For Maya 2010, the biggest news is that it is no longer comes in two versions, Complete and Unlimited. Now all users have access to the amazing Nucleus tools nCloth, nParticles and Fluids, Hair and Fur. For users with Maya Unlimited already, this is not at all exciting, but for those users they added powerful Maya Composite HDR and Autodesk MatchMover software (replacing Maya Live) and five additional licenses of mental ray with Autodesk Backburner network render queue manager. Backburner previously shipped with 3ds Max and, while not perfect, it was great when having to quickly setup network renders since it was all ready installed on all the computers. Prior to Maya 2010, users were required to install third party rendering management software for this basic functionality so I am very happy to see this included.
Game studios might not have seen much value in the Maya Unlimited features with past versions, but having access to the Hair and nCloth tools for the character rigging and animation dept is a plus. They can be used to drive skeleton joint chains for really nice simulation of all kinds of things from capes to flags to antenna, tails, ropes and more, helping save on animation time and allowing for more visual detail for game and cinematic animations. Another new upgrade for animation layers is the ability to create constraints and expressions in to an animation layer. This allows for greater flexibility in both rigging and animation when dealing with character props or complex constraint switching setups and they can now be simplified with layer weight animation.
A note on this: it can be a little confusing to add the constraint because it is done through the constraint-option box and not by just adding the constraint node to the layer, it was not totally obvious the first time I tried it. Also, make sure to read the limitations for constraints on layers, as there are a few issues that still need to be resolved with exporting and adding additional targets.
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Hi...
well...its not really that clear cut...
I used Maya for almost 5 years professionally before I fell in love with blender...
The only thing Maya really provides that blender does not is all the one click solutions available...(which are mostly never used in production)
The interface especially the upcoming one is really competitive,..its just diff from other softwares...once u get used to it u realize its equally intuitive as well...
the open movies are proof that the quality level in terms of imagery can be achieved...its just upto the aesthetic skills of the artists involved....the other point u mentio0ned is valid...about the industry looking for people with maya and max experience...but mostly though most big houses use their own software anyway so all we look for is the aesthetic skill sets...tools can be learned by anyone...
but look at the advantages...
#Blender is freeeee
#Blender is not just a 3d software but also has editing and compositing capabilities built in..not to mention a game engine.
#Its very well organized software wise...below 15 mb installation...crashes rarely...
#Its developing rate is very fast and u dont have to shell out any money for updates either...its freeee.
#There are a rising number of plugings and addons available and in development(crowd sim etc) to make life very easy.
#Its opensource so companies pretty much tweak it to their specific needs....
at the end of it ...as a tool its capable of doin pretty much anything...Maya can do...just a different workflow...
all it requires is for the person to spend time learning how to use it...thats it...the sheer difference will make it difficult in the beginning but once u get the hang of it...it will flow like water :) ~s~
MAYA has still many advantages in comparison to Blender.
MAYAs GUI is still intuitive and the workflows are logical!
In opposit to that even the new Blender 2.5 with the new GUI has it's disadvantages in many points (f.e. material-network, texturing etc.). Further import/export functionality is bad with Blender. Another point are the terms used by Blender. They are mostly not used in other programs.
For starting with 3D-CG Blender is a very good tool, but to do it professionally you have to decide for MAYA or other commercial packages!
The new UI is looking great for Blender and the updates to their software along with the open movie project are really cool to see. The problem is that when it comes to being paid as an artist the jobs are for Maya and Max and other Autodesk products. That said, to get a job a great demo reel can defiantly be created with Blender as your tool of choice.
Why is MAYA still doing so much business with Blender around? The only reason I can think of is because of Blender's notoriously difficult UI; other than that, I'd put my money there. ;)
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