Maya 2023 has arrived with a host of new features, updates, and improvements. Here’s a look at what’s new:
- Unreal Live Link for Maya: Stream animation data from Maya to Unreal in real-time. This is ideal for virtual production and game development.
- Blue Pencil 2D Drawing Tools: Draw 2D sketches over scenes directly in the viewport in a clean and non-destructive way. Building on Maya’s Grease Pencil tool, this new toolset allows for sketching poses over time, defining motion arcs, marking up shots, and adding annotations and comments for review.
- Faster Scene Playback: Experience improved scene playback with new Cached Playback support for the Jiggle deformer and Bullet solver.
- Evaluation Toolkit Updates: The Evaluation Toolkit now includes a new Invisibility evaluation mode and a Reduce Graph Rebuild option for animation workflows.
- USD Integration in Bifrost: This update integrates USD in Bifrost for the first time, allowing Maya to be used almost anywhere there’s a USD implementation in the pipeline – from familiar Maya workflows to procedural Bifrost workflows. Support for USD in the Channel Box is also improved, accelerating the editing process for layout and assembly, while the Attribute Editor makes it easier to distinguish between USD and Maya data. Manipulate large USD data sets faster with point snapping performance in the viewport, edit attributes while preserving changes with a new USD locking feature, isolate ‘select’ to focus on where work is being done in a scene, and visualize materials in the viewport with new MaterialX support.
- Improved Boolean Operations: Create and edit Boolean operations in fewer clicks with improvements to the Boolean node and options in the Boolean stack that make it easier to edit meshes live and preview changes in scenes. The Boolean toolset has also expanded with five new operations, providing further flexibility when generating complex shapes.
- Retopologize Tool Enhancements: Maximize efficiency with Retopologize tool enhancements, faster manipulation of mesh compounds, QuadDraw performance improvements, and more.
- Enhanced Rigging Precision: Rig with greater precision using a new Component Editor normalization option; enhancements to the Solidify, Morph, and Proximity Wrap deformers; improved deformer weight visualization; a new Manage Pins menu for UVPin and ProximityPin nodes which adds support for curves; and improved GPU override support.
- UX Improvements: Several UX improvements include new interactive tutorials, a tablet API setting for pressure-sensitive pen tablets, Script Editor upgrades, and viewport support for unlimited lights. A faster rendering experience with the latest version of Arnold and updates to the Create VR immersive design tool are also included.
For more details on the latest updates, explore the official Maya documentation and learning resources.
Source: CGPress