Autodesk Inc. unveiled Maya 2008 modeling, animation, visual effects and rendering software. The new version of the Academy Award-winning product focuses on providing improved workflow efficiency for artists in the film, television, game development, design and manufacturing industries. Maya 2008, which will be available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X for Intel-based Macintosh and PowerPC computers, will be showcased at the Autodesk booth (#703) during SIGGRAPH 2007, held at the San Diego Convention Center Aug. 7-9.
"Artists need production-proven solutions that they can truly depend on," explained Marc Petit, Autodesk Media & Ent. svp. "With Autodesk Maya 2008, we have placed considerable emphasis on raising the reliability bar higher than ever before. Designed for multi-core workstations, the 2008 release provides artists with an optimized application that includes new creative tools in modeling and animation to help artist meet demands quickly and easily."
"On all fronts Autodesk has improved Maya software's arsenal of tools," noted Rob van de Bragt, animation director at post-production facility The Mill. "Maya 2008 offers more flexibility in its modeling, rigging and rendering tools than ever before." The Mill recently used Maya on the Audi A5 ad Lines, the Playstation 3 commercial THIS LIVING, the Absolut commercial PROTEST, as well as the Comfort ads CITY STOP and DO THE MOVES.
"The Mac is at the heart of creative desktop content creation, and with the new Intel-based Mac hardware, adoption is booming." said Marc Petit, Autodesk Media & Entertainment svp. "Autodesk meets the 3D needs of this thriving community through ongoing innovation and support of the latest Apple hardware technologies. Autodesk Maya 2008 provides Mac users with a production-proven and robust professional 3D solution."
Insomniac Games relies on Maya as a modeling and animation tool for several titles, including RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN. Chad Dezern, art director at the facility said: "When a problem comes up, artists can usually work it out using the Maya toolset. When we need to build on the software, Maya offers an extremely flexible API, which makes it a great hub for our proprietary modeling tools."
Highlights of Maya 2008 include:
* Increased polygon modeling efficiency: Maya 2008 enables artists to quickly create, manipulate and place polygons that form highly detailed characters and environments, through
a streamlined Mesh Smooth workflow, a new Slide Edge feature and improvements to Booleans, Bridge, Bevel and other tools.
* Overall performance improvements for greater efficiency:
-- With Maya 2008, Autodesk continues the task of optimizing the software's toolsets to provide greater performance through both multi-threading and algorithmic speed-ups. For example:
-- The Poly Reduce function is now up to 30 times faster for a 22K face poly mesh, and Poly Smooth is now up to 4 times faster
-- The Maya nCloth cache performance up to 3 times faster on a cache of 10K vertices
-- mental ray translation for a 20K mesh instanced 2,000 times is more than 20 times faster
* Tools for creating better looking games: Maya 2008 is better equipped to create and display content destined for the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 game consoles. It offers support for DirectX HLSL shaders in the Maya viewport, a new hardware shader API, enhancements to the high-quality render view, accelerated mental ray texture baking performance and more.
* Increased flexibility for character setup and animation: Building upon the Maya software's advanced, customizable animation system, Maya 2008 delivers improved skinning and rigging toolsets, including new, non-destructive skin editing capabilities. These enhancements allow animators and technical directors to efficiently explore ideas, manage iterations and get superior results, faster.
Autodesk anticipates that Maya 2008 will be available in English in September. Maya 2008 will be supported on the Windows and Linux operating systems (64-bit and 32-bit versions), as well as Mac OS X for Intel-based Macintosh and PowerPC computers (32-bit version only).
Autodesk suggested retail pricing is $1,999 for Maya 2008 Complete (Standalone) and $6,999 for Maya 2008 Unlimited (Standalone). The upgrade price from Maya 8.5 Complete to Maya 2008 Complete is $899, and the upgrade price from Maya 8.5 Unlimited to Maya 2008 Unlimited is $1,249.
Platinum Membership is available for purchase simultaneously with the product purchase or upgrade. The Autodesk suggested retail price for Maya Platinum Membership starts at $1,299 per year. Platinum Membership customers qualify for access to the latest software updates, technical support case management, valuable product extensions and e-learning materials.
A variety of Learning Tools are available for Maya, ranging from introductory to advanced skill levels. Learning Autodesk Maya 2008 | Foundation is a new book that enables users to quickly familiarize themselves with Maya 2008. It offers a hands-on introduction to key Maya tools and techniques by enabling users to create and animate characters based on the Sony Pictures Animation feature film Surf's Up. Learning Autodesk Maya 2008 | Foundation is priced at US$69.99*. For additional details, please visit http://www.autodesk.com/learning-tools .
Autodesk Inc. (www.autodesk.com) is the world leader in 2D and 3D design software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
