 Maya
7
Academy Award® winning Maya® software is the world's most
powerfully integrated 3D modeling, animation, effects, and rendering
solution. Maya also adds to the quality and realism of 2D graphics.
That's why film and video artists, game developers, visualization
professionals, Web and print designers turn to Maya to realize their
creative vision.
Maya Unlimited
The ultimate version of Maya is the choice of digital artists who
are looking to make their 3D projects stand out. Maya Unlimited
includes all the functionality found in Maya Complete, plus, it
provides artists and animators with additional industry leading
innovations such as Maya Fluid Effects, Maya Cloth, Maya Hair, Maya
Fur and Maya Live, for the creation of superior digital content.
Create superior digital content!
Maya Complete
Integrates the world's foremost modeling, animation, visual effects,
and advanced rendering technologies into one complete workflow solution.
It's the most comprehensive 3D software that handles massive datasets
and produces professional-quality graphics on desktop PCs or graphics
workstations.
Personal Learning Edition
A special version of Maya Complete that provides free access to
Maya software for non-commercial use. Students of 3D graphics and
animation, industry professionals, and those interested in breaking
into the world of computer graphics (CG) have an opportunity to
explore Maya Complete and develop much in demand skills. Currently,
Maya Personal Learning Edition is at version 6
What's new in Maya 7
Maya 7 continues Alias' tradition of 3D innovation. Building upon
the architecture and performance developments in Maya 6.5, this
feature-packed release lets you achieve more with Maya.
New and Enhanced Character Animation Tools
Integrated Alias MotionBuilder® technology, and enhancements
to deformers and skinning tools make animating characters faster,
easier and more accurate.
• The industry's leading full-body IK solver makes rigging
and posing characters faster and easier, and enables the natural
articulation of biped and quadruped models.
• Deformations are now more flexible.
• Collaborative, parallel workflows are supported through
the ability to iteratively substitute geometry while
skinning, deformation, and key framing are in progress, and to propagate
topology changes to blend shape targets.
New Tools for Modeling and Mapping
With numerous new polygonal modeling and mapping tools, Maya 7
delivers the industry's most well rounded, comprehensive modeling
feature set.
• New polygon modeling functionality enhances modeling productivity
and provides greater control
over form.
• Faster, easier texturing is made possible with powerful
new UV tools.
• New and enhanced tools are available for scene optimization
without loss of detail—particularly valuable to game developers.
Powerful Visual Effects Tools
Maya 7 continues to innovate with unique tools for specialized
visual effects. • A powerful Toon Shader supports a wide range
of non-photorealistic rendering styles and features interactive
previews in near real-time. Maya Paint Effects™ also benefits
from the real-time mesh preview.
• Maya Fur is integrated with Maya's dynamic curve technology,
allowing realistic dynamics to be applied, and Fur and Hair to be
used together easily.
• Maya Hair can be transplanted from one model to another,
and it delivers support for texture mapping of attributes such as
baldness and color. Hair can also be rendered directly in mental
ray for Maya.
• Numerous enhancements to Maya Cloth extend the usability
and power of this production-proven tool.
• Per-object attributes and support for transparency bring
new creative possibilities to the Maya vector renderer.
• A new High Detail Solve mode for Maya Fluid Effects makes
the realistic simulation of complex explosions even easier.
Integration with Essential Production Tools
Streamline your workflow between Maya and Adobe® Photoshop®,
Adobe Illustrator®,
Macromedia® Flash® and popular CAD applications. •
Re-architected render layers technology allows multiple passes from
any combination of the four Maya renderers, or third party plug-in
renderers, to be prepared for optimal output to the compositor of
choice. Plus, layers can be rendered to Adobe Photoshop (PSD) and
Macromedia Flash (SWFT) files.
• Enhanced connectivity with Photoshop also includes "round-tripping"
with the 3D Paint tool, automatic conversion of procedurals to PSD,
and direct launching of the package from within Maya.
• Connectivity with Adobe Illustrator provides an iterative
workflow for creating 3D animated models from 2D vector data.
• Support for both ATI™ ASHLI and Nvidia® CgFX plug-ins
allow hardware shaders written for next-generation games platforms
to be previewed in Maya.
• An enhanced FBX® plug-in provides seamless exchange
of animation data and character rigs with Alias MotionBuilder.
More Productivity Enhancing Features
Maya 7 delivers a number of productivity-focused enhancements such
as shared edits for proxies, Artisan workflow improvements and important
API class additions. |
Mayavi Studios News | Mayavi Blog 
