Customizable User Interface, 3D Editorial Timeline and Skinning Workflows Make 3D Animation Easier

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — March 9, 2010 — Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), announced Autodesk Maya 2011 software – the latest version of its Academy Award–winning 3D animation software. A new user interface (UI), 3D editorial capability and enhanced skinning workflow help provide computer graphics (CG) artists with an end-to-end creative workflow at an exceptional value. Autodesk Maya software has been used on countless games as well as every Oscar-winning movie for Best Visual Effects since 2001.

“Maya continues to help artists set new standards in entertainment with credits such as ‘Avatar’ and ‘Uncharted 2: Among Thieves,’” said Stig Gruman, Autodesk vice president of digital entertainment. “The 2011 release is a key milestone for Maya. With a new customizable UI and a new graphics architecture, Maya strengthens its position as a foundation for modern film and game pipelines. The innovative 3D editorial timeline helps communicate and validate the creative vision behind a project and enables previs and virtual moviemaking workflows for users.”

Key New Features in Autodesk Maya 2011 Software

• Redesigned User Interface — Maya 2011 has a fresh new look and feel. Based on Nokia Qt, the new UI is simpler to customize, featuring dockable UI elements and improved editors. As beta tester Rob van den Bragt, supervisor/director, The Mill, explained, “I am loving all the positive steps taken in Maya 2011. With the UI now based on Qt, Maya has become more flexible, powerful and modern.”
• High Performance Core — Maya 2011 features a completely redesigned graphics pipeline that helps deliver new levels of performance for complex scenes while improving the quality of the viewport feedback.
• Mac OS X 64-Bit Availability — Mac OS X users can access considerably more memory to handle larger and more complex scenes with the new 64-bit executable.
• Accelerated 3D Editorial — The software’s new Camera Sequencer adds powerful multicamera editorial capabilities to help facilitate pre-visualization and virtual moviemaking production using a Maya timeline. Developed on-site in production to meet the needs of large-scale CG animations, the Camera Sequencer supports import of both AAF and Final Cut Pro EDLs. “The most exciting feature in Maya 2011 is the Camera Sequencer,” said beta tester Matt Wood, visual effects supervisor, Space Digital Ltd. “I found it to be an amazing solution. The ability to edit and animate at the same time is truly remarkable -- not just sequencing cameras but slipping, reordering and even retiming them individually. It's so valuable.”
• Enhanced Skinning Workflow — Creating believable CG characters is also made easier with a new, dual quaternion option for smooth skinning, interactive volume binding, enhancements to the Paint Skin Weights tool, deformer weight mirroring and surface falloff mode for the Wrap deformer. “The Paint Skin Weights tool overhaul has made working with large numbers of joints much easier, and the interactive skinning envelopes will be very helpful for working with multiple characters of the same size with various mesh topologies,” said beta tester Ryan Trowbridge, character technical director, Naughty Dog.
• Improved Maya Composite — A new Vector Paint feature in Maya Composite dramatically improves its paint and rotoscoping capabilities. Now, animatable and trackable paint strokes can be used to paint colors and reveal or clone data across a sequence or on a per-frame basis. “We absolutely love the new Vector Paint tools, which nicely round out the robust toolset in Maya Composite,” said beta tester Michael Vaglienty, visual effects supervisor, Giant Steps, VFX.

From March 11–13, 2010, visit the Virtual GDC event on the AREA community site to watch Maya 2011 product demonstrations and customer presentations live from the Autodesk Game Developers Conference booth. More information is also available on AREA blogs: Cory Mogk’s Mayalicious, Steven Roselle’s My Oh Maya! and Duncan Brinsmead’s Duncan’s Corner. Videos of the new features are available on the Autodesk You Tube channel.

Pricing and Availability

Autodesk anticipates that Maya 2011 will be available in English and Japanese in April 2010. The Autodesk suggested retail price (SRP) for an Autodesk Maya 2011 stand-alone license is US$3,495.* The SRP to upgrade from Maya 2010 stand-alone to Maya 2011 stand-alone is $1,745.* Autodesk Subscription is available for purchase simultaneously with the product or upgrade purchase for $595 SRP per year.