Maya 2 Unveiled at NAB '99

 

 

 

 

(April 25, 1999) Alias|Wavefront, an SGI company, introduced Maya 2 at NAB 99, a third major release of Maya software that will deliver significant enhancements to Alias|Wavefront's award-winning 3D animation and visual effects software for professional digital content developers in the film, video, broadcast and game developer communities. Alias|Wavefront will deliver Maya 2 simultaneously for use on both Microsoft Windows NT® and Silicon Graphics® IRIX® workstations.

Maya 2 brings dramatic advancements to both the Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited products.

"Maya 2 incorporates hundreds of suggested improvements from customers all over the world," says Bob Bennett, Maya product line manager at Alias|Wavefront. "The result is a finely tuned product that is designed to be easier to use and packed with innovative new features."

New Features in Maya Complete 2
 Rendering – Radical improvements in rendering workflow combined with a wealth of new features are designed to greatly improve user productivity and expand creative opportunities. Rendering productivity is greatly enhanced by the addition of an IPR (Interactive Photorealistic Rendering) capability designed to allow users to make near real-time adjustments to the final rendered image. The Maya 2 renderer is designed to support fast 2.5D motion blur, reference objects, texture filtering capabilities and API extensions for the addition of raytraced effects such as caustics. Rendering speed has also been enhanced by up to 90% in some cases. Multi-threaded batch rendering brings further dramatic improvements.

Character Creation and Animation – Powerful new deformer types and automated skinning capabilities simplifies the creation and control of complex characters. Character animation is enhanced in Maya 2 by the introduction of a "pose-based" approach that lets animators treat a complex character as a single entity during the animation stage. Also, the Maya timeline will include "keys and breakdowns," which are designed to automatically maintain the relative positioning of keys in a way familiar to traditional animators.

Dynamics and Particles – Improvements include the addition of textured particle emission, geometry duplication on particles and simple-to-use effects such as Smoke, Fire and Flow. Direct manipulation controls in the 3D view for emitter and field attributesmake the setting up and fine-tuning of dynamic effects more intuitive.

Modeling – Maya 2 includes more efficient tools for precise control of curve and surface geometry that benefit from Alias|Wavefront's extensive background in design modeling.

Usability - Consolidated user interface and workflow radically reduce learning time and reinforce Maya software's reputation as the world's most efficient 3D production tool.

Games/Interactive Functionality – Targeted features for game developers include an optimized polygon smooth tool, pre-lighting support, new texturing tools and the unique ability to assign arbitrary data to polygon vertices using Maya.

Artisan.API – The addition of a dynamics API and broad extensions in the areas of polygons, user-defined geometry, and animation round out the Maya Developer toolkit.

New to Maya Unlimited 2
In addition to including all of the new enhancements found in Maya Complete, major improvements to Maya Unlimited 2 will feature:

Advanced Modeling – Advanced tools inspired by Maya PowerModeler are now fully integrated into Maya, along with the introduction of subdivision surface technology as a modeling refinement tool. Subdivision surface technology is designed to allow local detail to be created on arbitrarily complex, single surface topologies (such as an adding an extra finger to a hand).

Maya Cloth –The world's fastest and most accurate digital cloth solution includes new features such as precise velocity cut-off controls for cloth coming to rest and new support for cloth "pinching."

Maya Live – Refinements in Maya Unlimited's integrated matchmoving solution include marker tracking, lens distortion correction, and integration with Maya™ Composer software.

Maya Fur – Fur, grass, short hair and many other effects are now fully compatible with the Maya 2 renderer. Support for adjustment of fur parameters such as length and direction via Maya Artisan is maintained.

Windows NT support – For the first time, Maya Unlimited functionality will be fully available on Windows NT.

"Our aggressive product release cycle and innovative technological advancements continue to drive change in the industry," says Warren Pratt, president of Alias|Wavefront. "Maya 2 is state-of-the-art 3D and visual effects software that brings the future of digital content creation to the desktop today."

Pricing and Availability
Maya Complete 2 is expected to have an SRP of $7,500 (US) and include modeling, rendering, animation, dynamics, Artisan and MEL, an open interface for programming and scripting Maya. Maya Unlimited 2 is expected to have an SRP of $16,000 (US) and include Maya Live, Maya Fur, Maya Cloth and the new Advanced Modeling features. [Prices are indicated in US funds and will vary outside the US. Prices are subject to change without notice.]

Alias|Wavefront plans to offer favorable upgrade pricing from current versions of Maya, and Alias|Wavefront plans to provide free upgrades to Maya 2 to customers who purchase Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited after April 19, 1999 and prior to the ship date of Maya 2. Maya Complete 2 and Maya Unlimited 2 are scheduled to ship in late June 1999.

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