Autodesk has announced the release of Maya 2023, with significant updates and improvements aimed at enhancing animation, modeling, and rendering workflows. This release introduces a range of new features and enhancements, including:
- Unreal Live Link for Maya: This feature enables users to stream animation data directly from Maya to Unreal Engine in real-time. This integration is particularly beneficial for virtual production and game development workflows, facilitating seamless data transfer between the two platforms.
- Blue Pencil 2D Drawing Tools: A significant upgrade from the previous Grease Pencil tool, the new Blue Pencil tools allow users to draw 2D sketches directly within the viewport. These sketches are non-destructive, meaning they don’t affect the underlying 3D scene. This feature is ideal for sketching poses, defining motion arcs, marking up shots, and adding annotations for review.
- Cached Playback Enhancements: Cached Playback now supports the Jiggle deformer and Bullet solver, resulting in faster scene playback and improved performance. This allows animators to work more efficiently with complex simulations.
- Evaluation Toolkit Updates: The Evaluation Toolkit now includes a new Invisibility evaluation mode and a Reduce Graph Rebuild option. These additions improve animation workflows by providing more control and optimization options.
- USD Integration in Bifrost: This update marks the first integration of USD (Universal Scene Description) within Bifrost. This integration allows Maya to seamlessly interact with USD implementations throughout the production pipeline, extending from traditional Maya workflows to procedural Bifrost operations. Improvements to USD support in the Channel Box and Attribute Editor also accelerate the editing process for layout and assembly. Furthermore, features like point snapping, USD locking, isolate ‘select’, and MaterialX support enhance USD data manipulation and visualization.
- Improved Boolean Operations: Creating and editing Boolean operations is now more streamlined with improvements to the Boolean node and options within the Boolean stack. These enhancements simplify the process of editing meshes live and previewing changes within scenes. The Boolean toolset also expands with five new operations, offering greater flexibility in generating complex shapes.
- Retopology and Modeling Enhancements: This release introduces enhancements to the Retopologize tool, faster manipulation of mesh compounds, and improvements to QuadDraw performance, boosting overall modeling efficiency.
- Rigging Improvements: Rigging precision is enhanced with a new Component Editor normalization option, improvements to the Solidify, Morph, and Proximity Wrap deformers, better deformer weight visualization, a new Manage Pins menu for UVPin and ProximityPin nodes (with added support for curves), and improved GPU override support.
- UX and General Updates: Various UX improvements have been implemented, including new interactive tutorials, a tablet API setting for pressure-sensitive pen tablets, Script Editor upgrades, and viewport support for unlimited lights. The release also includes a faster rendering experience with the latest version of Arnold and updates to the Create VR immersive design tool.
See Also:
- TyFlow 1.004 Released
- New Features Of 3ds Max 2023