Alias announced that the Maya Complete 6 and the Maya Unlimited 6 software are now shipping globally to all new and upgrading customers. Customers on Alias' maintenance program were first able to download the software on April 26. Debuted at NAB. Maya 6 responds to the everyday production demands of 3D artists in the film, broadcast, game development, digital publishing and visualization markets.
Advances in character creation and animation capabilities include re-architected Trax non-linear animation, new motion retargeting and motion redirection capabilities and a new Maya Hair toolset, which features an integrated dynamic curve simulation engine. Maya Cloth and Maya Fur enhancements contain visual feedback of cloth stress, new stitching options and Maya Fur can now be rendered in mental ray.
As 3D projects continue to grow in complexity, Maya scales to meet next generation production challenges with optimizations resulting in performance gains, most notably: Smooth Proxy tool that is up to 18 times faster, Subdivision Surface proxy manipulations are up to eight times faster and new file referencing, scene segmentation and shader organization features that make it easier to handle today's increasingly large data sets. Mac OSX platform users will benefit from a conversion of Maya to a Mach-O application and experience increased Maya software rendering times that average 20-50% faster than previous versions.
Superior interaction and integration with industry-standard tools makes it easier than ever to integrate Maya into any production environment including new connectivity with Adobe Photoshop, a new embedded Web browser within the Maya panel, support for new file formats including DDS and PNG file formats, full bi-directional support for Alias StudioTools, on the Mac OS X platform and OpenFlight, on all platforms, updated support for AutoCAD 2004 DWG files and enhanced support for IGES files.
Topping off this long list of features, the new ability to apply deformers to particles brings greater control to the dynamics toolset, Maya Paint Effects has been extended so that it can be used with polygon meshes and a new Soft Modification tool and workflow enhancements for Smooth Proxy make modeling more efficient than ever.
As an added benefit, Maya Bonus Tools are now available for download from the Alias Web site at www.alias.com/downloads. Maya Bonus Tools is a useful collection of Maya scripts and plug-ins. The Bonus Tools set is developed by the extended product specialist team and provides Maya 6 users with a wide selection of extended character rigging tools and new plug-ins, including: attribute collection for simplified UI building, setup back and animation tools for mirroring and secondary, dynamic effects, to name a few.
Maya 6 is now available to purchase at www.alias.com or from the Alias network of authorized resellers. Maya Complete software for the Windows, IRIX, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems, is priced at $1,999* and includes modeling, rendering, animation, dynamics, Maya Artisan, Maya Paint Effects, mental ray for Maya and Maya Embedded Language (MEL), an open interface for programming and scripting. Maya Unlimited software for the Windows, IRIX and Linux operating systems, is priced at $6,999* and includes all features in Maya Complete along with Maya Hair, Maya Fluid Effects, Maya Fur, Maya Cloth and Maya Live.
Version upgrades for Maya Complete are priced at $899* and for Maya Unlimited at $1,249*.
Prices are list prices for node-locked licenses; floating licenses for Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited are available at an additional fee. All prices quoted are in U.S. dollars. International pricing may vary.
Toronto-based Alias, which was recently acquired by Accel-KKR (www. accel-kkr.com), a technology-oriented private equity firm, is a leading innovator of 3D graphics technology, with a Custom Development Center in Santa Barbara, California.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
