Are you interested in knowing what Autodesk Maya is? Are you also interested in getting information on how to use Maya to create 3D models and animations?
We have provided answers to these questions below and also information on some of the best training resources for learning how to use Maya. What is Autodesk Maya? Autodesk Maya is an industry leading 3D animation software application developed by Autodesk that enables video professionals who work with animated film, television programs, visual effects, and video games to create highly professional three-dimensional (3D) cinematic animations. Prior to two-dimensional (2D) and 3D animation software, manual hand animation tools such as drawing paper and pencils, erasers, paints and brushes, light tables, and transparencies only offered a subset of what can now be done with programs such as Maya. Maya 1.0 was originally developed and released in 1998 by Alias Wavefront and seven years later in 2005, Autodesk, Inc. Acquired Maya and renamed it to 'Autodesk Maya'.
Since its original release, Maya has become widely used in the film industry to create graphics for Academy Award winning films such as Rango and Hugo. Maya is also becoming more widely used in the video game industry to create visual effects for games such as Call of Duty and Halo. Maya includes MEL, short for Maya Embedded Language, and Python scripting, which both allow you to take advantage of its open architecture by programming complicated or repetitive commands.
These programmed commands help to save valuable time and also offer a method of sharing them with others who might find them useful. In the film and television industry, Maya is the de facto standard for 3D visual effects, computer graphics, and character animation. What are the benefits of using Maya? Individuals who work in or are currently pursuing careers in the 3D animation, character modeling, visual effects, and other animation fields will discover many benefits of using Maya. The scene assembly and accelerated modeling workflows built into Maya not only maximize productivity but also help to streamline your design experience, putting creativity back at your fingertips while increasing efficiency. Complex animation tasks that are nearly impossible to construct by hand are easily created using Maya's robust tools. The grease pencil, automatic joint centering, camera sequencer, and weight distribution tools are just a few of the features that Maya offers to help animators focus more on the workflow and express more creatively.
With Maya's enhanced Viewport 2.0 and DX11Shader (DirectX 11) rendering engine, blurred reflections and shader effects, as well as translucency, substance textures, and many other features can be worked with directly within the Maya viewport. 3D models and visual effects are rendered in real-time, allowing artists to work in an environment that nearly matches final output. Large and complex worlds are easily created and managed with Maya's Open Data platform, which handles production assets as discrete smart data elements and enables artists to quickly test different representations for the best result. Maya offers many other tools and features that can enhance productivity such as Volume Attributes, Paint Effects Surface, Clip Matching, URI Support, File Path Handling, PySide Pythod Qt Binding, Inline Help, and much more. How is Maya used? Maya is used by creative professionals across many industries to do everything from producing visual effects for promotional television commercials to creating complex animations and effects for Transformers: Dark of the Moon; a blockbuster film where over 30 stereoscopic 3D sequences were produced using Maya – including transformations of Autobots from common vehicles to robotic wonders as well as highly detailed facial animations of the robots.
Maya has many uses and is even being leveraged by industries beyond the television and film fields. For example, video game companies may use the scene assembly and modeling tools within Maya to create realistic environmental elements such as trees, foliage, and rocks, as well as organic locations and terrain that are found in major game releases such as Medal of Honor and Uncharted. In the case of car design companies, Maya software may be used to create 3D concept models as well as detailed shape plans and interior design components that can then be shared with and reviewed by clients as digital prototypes. In the case of architectural design companies, Maya may be used to move beyond the typical architectural design and visualization limits by leveraging features such as Subdivision Surfacing modeling to create complex architectural forms with realistic programmatic elements. Ultimately, Maya enables companies to design and produce stunning 3D models, animations, and visual effects using its highly efficient and streamlined toolsets.
This, in turn, increases productivity, enhances creativity for artists who want to push the envelope, and significantly reduces the time it takes to confidently finish complex projects. Maya Training on Multimedia DVDs. This Maya training DVD will teach students how to use Maya's robust 3D modeling tools, scene management controls, material creation and editing features, camera management, lighting, animation, rendering features, and much more. It provides over 15 hours of instructor-led training covering 221 individual topics and includes project files that can be used to follow along with the instructor.
view a complete list of other Autodesk courses.
The most advantageous aspect of using a node based workflow such as Houdini is the procedural nature of it. Once you have a working project it usually runs itself once changes need to be made, because every single aspect can be driven procedurally based on the inputs. Eg, I have dust being created where a character walks, if the character animation changes I would automatically run the nodal network and get an updated dust simulation with no extra effort.
The downside of this workflow is that there are a million ways to achieve any result, making working with other artists difficult if you/they need to use the same scene file. Some people will build a network one way, others a cometely different way. Other software might get you a good result quicker, but houdini will likely save that time back if changes are needed.
TL;DR Node based is very procedural focused, once the work is done it's usually faster to iterate. With that in mind, Houdini usually isn't the go-to software for modeling and animation. Lighting and FX usually benefit the most from it. Compositing for high-end work shifted to a node paradigm as a standard over 20 years ago.
(First Cineon, then Shake, now Nuke and Fusion). Even companies that created their own custom composting tools use a node paradigm for the UI.
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One would think that manipulating pixels is a more simple task than full 3D work. I would argue, because it is somewhat more simple (at it's most basic) yet potentially more complex at it's most complex, compositing simply hit the complexity wall of the older paradigms before '3D' did. Compositing had also shifted to a procedural paradigm before even moving to nodes. Nodes were the next logical step to enhance the procedural workflows.
I'd say, if you look at the state of the industry in terms of where 3D is going, the writing is on the wall. Expectations are rising while budgets are staying effectively fixed.
The only way to meet the expectations for richer environments and scenes is via more automation and simulation. You already see the trend in play. Keeping everything you need to interact with as an artist in a single workspace is a challenge, but Houdini already addresses that better than most.
The creators of the various 3D packages have realized the need for nodes and procedural workflows and we are seeing a shift in the high end towards nodes. Most NEW programs like Massive and Katana are using procedural/node paradigms. Most other 3D tools out there that didn't already have them are starting to include partial implementations of node interfaces. Very few of them implement the paradigm as completely as Houdini, Katana, Massive, Fusion or Nuke. Certain 3D tasks like rigging really lend themselves well to a procedural workflows. It's a shame Houdini doesn't get used more for that. Texturing could be greatly enhanced by a projection based procedural workflow.
(there is room for disruption there actually) Now that ptex exists, there is a standard map format to bake out to. Certain workflows (like organic modeling and sculpting) don't benefit as much from proceduralism, so it does follow that companies whose tools are stronger in those areas would not be as motivated to shift paradigm. It's still nice to have nodes where they make sense, however. Most tools could do with easier automation options even when their main focus is interactive/destructive workflows. As Ethan mentioned, most programs include automation via python or custom languages but it's usually not as easy to use as a native procedural tool would be. If you have been enjoying Houdini, my advice would be to continue learning tools like Houdini and to learn scripting.
Houdini is the best example of an end-to-end procedural animation tool and it's amazingly powerful for it. Like most tools, it has things it is strong at and things it is weaker.
Really, the only area Houdini is weak, generally speaking, is interactive modeling. (It's absolutely top at procedural modeling, however) Otherwise it's very powerful all around. You can always use a more focused tool for interactive modeling like Silo. Most studios need technical artists more than just artists.
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Having strong TD skills (and art skills) will greatly improve your opportunities for employment in the high end. Advantages: Two things: automation and reusability. Artist time is expensive, but machine time is cheap. Automating a workflow frees up artists to focus on actual creative endeavors, instead of wasting time/money being button mashing monkeys. It wastes company dollars and is soul crushing for the artist to do everything by hand every single time it needs to be done.
With nodes, the procedural nature means that small changes trickle down the chain of operations. By changing your inputs and/or a few parameters, you can get different, although highly controlled, results. Thus reusability down the line with future tasks/projects.
With a straight ahead package like Maya, Blender or (fill in the blank), doing a task means you have done it only once and will likely need to redo it again when the requirements change, even just a little. You can automate in these other packages, but often only through scripting using something like Python; this is both error prone and unintuitive compared to just placing some nodes and modifying a few knobs. In Houdini, you don't need to be a coder to automate something. One of the most amazing environment modelers I personally know rarely does any coding other than occasionally writing simple expressions. Matlab torrent download with crack.
See some of his older work here. Disadvantages: For one-off work, a node based procedural workflow can be slower than a straight ahead workflow like Maya, Blender, etc. As a caveat, I have come to find that true one off work is almost non-existent. If you do something once, it is almost guaranteed you will need to do it (or something nearly identical) again at some future date. Save yourself the headache; create the workflow once now, and reuse or modify it as needed. There is some one-off work that doesn't follow this guideline, like character animation.
By its very nature, it must be unique each time. However, Houdini can still help with the ability to create Pose libraries.
I am personally hoping that Houdini starts to take off more for Rigging and Animation work. It is capable, but just not popular, in that sphere. Conclusion (opinion): As studio budgets shrink and workforces shrink with it, people who can make automated workflows are increasingly going to be the only people still employed.
Maya - Animation Maya - Animation Introduction Why Maya??? Software System Specification Features Advantages & Disadvantages What is Maya??? Maya is an Animation Developed by Alies Research Corporation Maya is Originally next generation animation product - The Advance Visualizer - Power Animation - Alias Sketch Maya 1.0 was released in February 1998. Maya was bought by Autodesk in 2005 and the Maya was renamed Autodesk Maya.
Features Architecture,Engineering & Construction Civil Infrastructur Manufacturing o Aerospace o Cuilding Product o Industrial Machinery o Life Science Media & Entertainment o Advertising, Publishing & Graphic Designing o Film & TV o Games Education Institution of Animation o Computer Training Institutes o Animation Training Institutes o Multimedia Training Institutes Advantages & Disadvantages Why Maya??? Today the Maya is every ware. Maya = Artist + Computer Scientist In 3D applications - video games - animated film - TV series - visual effects. Autodesk o Autodesk Maya o Autodesk 3ds Max o Autodesk Softimage After Effect Software System Requirement for Autodesk Maya 2014 Windows 8/Windows 7 Professional Edition, Apple Mac OS 10.7.x / 10.8.x, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 W S, Fedora 14 Linux Operating System 64-bit Intel or AMD multi-core Processor 4 GB of RAM(minimum) 2 GB of free disk space for s/w Installation IE, Safari or Mozilla Firefox web Browser 3 Button Mouse Advantages Its very fun to do!
3D industry a booming career and education in contemporary society. It’s a form of group work, so you can bounce of ideas and knowledge off each other. Animation can be used to visualize a dynamic process which cannot be readily seen by the eye or science setting, so they produce a visual product which shows the content. Has the potential to deepen their understanding of topics through visualization of content. Disadvantages Slow work Runtime Error in various subject Audio problems encountered during the editing process. Final editing process may be a problem Take a more time for Rendaring. Software is very complicated so very difficult to use for fresher.
Level of knowledge with this technology in highly varied Movies.
Autodesk's Maya software is arguably the top rated effects program of it kind in the world. Only Pixar's Renderman is close. Maya is used by many Visual Effects companies l ike Industrial Light and Magic (Lucasfilm), Digital Matte World, and others, to create Oscar-winning special and visual effects for motion pictures, TV programs, even Broadcast programs. 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' is one of the most recent Oscar winning films to benefit from the use of Maya software for its Visual Effects. Autodesk itself has won a total of 5 Scientific and Technical Achievement Oscars for its continuing development of Maya and the program's contribution to the Film industry. Last year, Autodesk won the S&T Oscar for Maya's new Fluid Effects, which allows artists to realistically create smoke and fluid effects onscreen. Because of its media versatility, is is also used in the Gaming industry for effects, 3D modeling and Matte painting.
There are many careers associated with Maya - Graphic Design, Visual Effects, Matte's, 3D modeling/rendering, animation, etc. Think of the careers associated with Graphic Art and Effects, and you've answered your question. It's one of those programs that allow you to pick and choose where you want to work. The Alias Maya software played a large role in a few of the StarWars movies. If you have extensive knowledge of the software, there is likely a chance of moving into the field of Movie/Video Game animation.
Try a job Web site such as Flip Dog. Being a member there is free.
Hi Castor, man that is a difficult question to answer, because there is no fundamental big difference between max and maya. There are a lot of small things that makes them different. Like the userinterface:).
They both have a history/operator stack that work quiet similar and they both have all the important tools (modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, rendering and dynamics). I have a feeling that maya can handle higher level of complexity (e.g. High end character-rigs) where max tend to get unstabe, but on the other hand max has got a lot of small tools that might get the job done faster and there are some nice plugin renderers available for max. I would say max and maya are not too different and its just a matter of taste what you like better. I my opinion most things can be done in both apps. I know that my answer is probably not what you wanted to read, but i think you should ask a little more specific. Nobody wants to compare every tool and feature between max and maya.
Cheers Thorsten. There's a thread with a similar name for this in the 3ds max forum, that went on for quite a while with only limited petty fanboy arguments - it goes into a lot of depth and mentions the types of jobs and approaches people have. To add to what other people have said - if it is possible to ultimately say one package is better than another in certain areas, those areas may also have a certain bias. Although some people swear by the poly tools in Maya, I find they are more for organic modelling, whereas in Max there seems to be more precision tools - so you have to ask yourself, are you actually going to be blowing cofee tables apart, or are you going to be making variations of coffee tables all day? But ultimately, I think you can easily search for these types of questions within the various threads of CG talk, and if you 'prefer Maya' already, then why ask people for their opinions in a Maya forum - surely you're asking for some form of validation/reinforcement of a decision you have already made?
If that's all you want - then listen: lots of geniuses use Maya and lots of geniuses use Max and there will always be people who whup the hell out of the best you can do in Maya or Max with another piece of software. Another of this kind of treads tread!:P Well my answer: I think it doesn't mather what programme you use, they both have amazing tools and an all in one package, but it realy depends on the artist behind the computer controlling the programme. I've seen artist make incredible stuff with software like wings 3d, blender etc. And those are free!
Maybe maya is.k dollar but i think alot of people think when they have a package like maya or max they make better art true what isn't true at all. I've chosen for maya aftera long discussion with myself, mainly beceause i liked it a bit more, but also cause i want to work in feauture film and maya is heavily used in that area. So conclusion is, it doesn't mather it only depends on if the artist needs all the tools avaible in the packages, and what he/she is trying to accomplish with this programme. So try both trials (30-day trial and Maya Personal Learning Edition) and see for yourself what you like more. People can say to you that they prefer maya above max cause of its powerfull particles (JUST AN EXAMPLE, none of this is based on real characters or preferences:P) but if you never have or want to use particles thats not something you can learn from. SO choose for yourself, and make your own choose, this is just simply the best Good lucK!:thumbsup.
Maya was adopted heavily by the CG industry because of its strength in the FX field: particles, physics, cloth and fluids. It's much easier on the pipeline if all of the FX and creature/character work is inside the same package, so Maya took the crown.
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Maya truly is the jack of all trades. It was also chosen in a large part because of it's ease of integration into pipelines from a TD's perspective. Many a year ago Maya also held the crown for NURBS modeling, I would say it still does. Max's Nurbs tools are rubbish, absolute shit. However times have changed, and sub-d is king now. In my opinion Maya is a little behind the times on its modeling tools, but catching up quick.
From my experience with Maya, as a part of a pipeline it's a powerful tool to get the job done, but it isn't 'convenient'. I prefer to work with MAX, becasue I don't have a resident TD to program a tool for me, or to setup my renders, I have to do most of it myself. In a small team, the accessability and convenience of the Max interface is invaluable because it lets me spend time creating art, not wrangleing a render farm or writing batch files.
Maya is about specialization, Max is about accesability. That's my extremely over simplified view on the two packages. And at this point, I think Max has ripped off almost all of Maya's really superior features making the two essentially neck and neck.
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