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Overall Rating = SWEET


Summary: Maya 2011 is an important update that delivers the much anticipated 64-bit support for the Mac OS and significant improvements in animation and dynamics simulations. More important to the film and video community is the addition of a new Camera Sequencer, which promises to streamline Maya’s role in the video editing pipeline.

Target Apps: 3D modelling and animation for feature films, broadcast, special effects and game development

What’s Cool: Maya 2011 delivers improved character rigging tools, enhanced dynamics, enhanced integration with editing via the Camera Sequencer, better performance and productivity, and 64-bit support for the Mac OS X.

What’s Missing: Maya is still a bit pricy and has a sizable learning curve; it also seriously needs an updated 3D painting system similar to 3ds Max’s Viewport Canvas.

What It Costs You: $3495; Upgrade, $1745

System Requirements
For 32-bit Autodesk Maya 2011:
• Microsoft Windows Vista Business (SP2 or higher), Microsoft Windows XP Professional (SP3 or higher), Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, or Apple Mac OS X 10.6.2 operating system
•Windows: Intel Pentium 4 or higher, AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron processor, AMD Phenom processor
• Mac computer: Intel-based processor
• 2 GB RAM
• 4 GB free hard drive space
• Qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics card
• Three-button mouse with mouse driver software
• DVD-ROM drive
• Maya Composite media cache requirements for playback:
10 GB minimum, 200 GB recommended
HDD: IDE, SATA, SATA 2, SAS, SCSI
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher, Apple Safari, or Mozilla Firefox web browser

For 64-bit Autodesk Maya 2011:
• Microsoft Windows Vista Business (SP2 or higher), Microsoft Windows XP x64 Edition (SP2 or higher), Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, Apple Mac OS X 10.6.2, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 WS, or Fedora 11 operating system
• Windows and Linux: Intel EM64T, AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron, or AMD Phenom processor
• Mac computer: Intel-based processor
• 2 GB RAM
• 4 GB free hard drive space
• Qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics card
• Three-button mouse with mouse driver software
• DVD-ROM drive
• Maya Composite media cache requirements for playback:
• 10 GB minimum, 200 GB recommended
• HDD: IDE, SATA, SATA 2, SAS, SCSI
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher, Apple Safari, or Mozilla Firefox web browser

www.autodesk.com

Review: Autodesk Maya 2011

The new version of Maya, like its sibling 3ds Max, has a host of focused improvements, as you’d expect, in animation, dynamics and performance. Now video editors working inside Maya, especially those on the Mac, have something to cheer about. Maya 2011 includes support for 64-bit computing within the Mac OS and the addition of a slick new Camera Sequencer, for better 3D editing.


3D Editing with the Camera Sequencer


Hoping to better integrate the film and video editing process, the new Camera Sequencer in Maya 2011 improves productivity from storyboards to finished animation. It's built like a video editor with a UI and tools that will remind you of standard editing packages. Though the main purpose of the new Camera Sequencer is to manage camera shots in Maya, it includes familiar video editing tools that let you import EDLs, along with all associated assets such as audio and timing, to more precisely manage framing, composition and timing. When finished, you can use Playblast to preview the animated sequence.



Maya’s new Camera Sequencer promises to boost the
video editing process by letting you import EDLs
from Final Cut or After Effects into Maya and
used to compose, frame and time camera shots.

Improved Character Animation


For those whose unenviable job is rigging characters for animation, Maya 2011 delivers welcomed help with new rigging tools, improved paint weighting, and integration with HumanIK. The new interactive skin binding tool quickly sets initial weights by adjusting handles on a volume manipulator that in turn adjusts bone influences. Once you finish initial weighting, you can now easily make refinements with the improved paint-weighting tools. And to prevent mesh kinks and twists in even the best rig Maya has a new dual quaternion skinning option that reduces unwanted artefacts.

Autodesk’s HumanIK solver, now integrated in Maya 2011, improves productivity by making it possible to repurpose existing character animation data. With the HumanIK solver you can transfer animation data, like motion capture information, from one character to another regardless of skeleton hierarchy, size and proportion differences. Once transferred the animation data can be edited non-destructively via animation layers and previewed.

Better Dynamics


Dynamics, another of Maya’s strong suites, has also been greatly improved. Maya Fluid Effects ships with new attributes like Self Attraction and Repulsion to reproduce fluid behaviors with high fidelity. And to improve performance the new Auto Resize option preserves memory by adjusting a simulation’s container as needed. Also new and notable are a slew of fluids lighting tools. For instance, new Shadow Diffusion manages light scattering and shadows, Light Type produces internal illumination and Light Brightness and Color control the intensity and hue of internal lighting.

Autodesk’s Nucleus Technology, the revolutionary technology introduced with nCloth in Maya 8.5 and nParticles in Maya 2009, has been updated in this release. You can now get your nParticles to emit fluids, creating a trail of smoke, for instance. The technology also has a few wonderful new attributes like per-particle rotations, collision ramps, surface tension and viscosity properties, which make it possible to create ultra-realistic fluids simulations. nCloth got a bit of a makeover, too, and now includes such tools as collide strength, a new Bend solver, and a Rest Length Scale tool to set cloth properties.



Other noteworthy improvements in Maya 2011 include improved assets management, new Paint Effects options, an enhanced UI based on the Qt framework shared by other Autodesk applications, better display of heavy scenes (many models and textures), advanced rendering options, including color management and support for HDR images in the Render view (as seen in the above image), and better integration with Mudbox. Overall, it's a robust app that will make animating—and editing—in 3D that much easier.



Studio/monthly contributor Mike de la Flor creates medical and scientific illustrations and animations for a range of clients, including the University of Texas Medical School and Baylor College of Medicine. He is also the author of several how-to books and the recently released Digital Sculpting with Mudbox: Essential Tools and Techniques for Artists.


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