If you have gone to the cinema to watch but one film over the last year, I would put money on the fact that at least one shot of said movie was in some way affected by an Autodesk product. Visual effects and animation are huge industries in Hollywood today thanks to the ravenous desire for gratuitous computer graphics effects in all kinds of films. It is almost impossible to see a film today that does not involve computer graphics in some way. All of those effects have to come from an artist with a mouse in hand and a piece of software in front of them.
Autodesk is a name known to everyone in the industry. Founded in 1982, the company has become one of the largest proprietors of 2D and 3D design software for animation, CAD, engineering, and entertainment creation. One of the company’s largest products is AutoCAD, which is one of the heavy hitters of CAD software. In the entertainment world, Autodesk is synonymous with juggernaut titles like 3DS Max, Softimage, and Maya.
Recently, Autodesk unleashed the Entertainment Creation Suites, marking the first time the company has offered its products in single packages. The Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suites are all-in-one animation pipelines designed to keep costs manageable while offering everything needed for modern 3D artists. They come in two flavors—Maya and 3DS Max. Both suites ship with Autodesk Mudbox 2011 and Autodesk MotionBuilder 2011, and the animation packages are swapped between 3DS Max and Maya respectively. Today we’re looking at the Maya Entertainment Creation Suite, which contains everything you need to implement a modern 3D production pipeline, from modeling to final rendering.
Autodesk Maya 2011
Scene credit goes to 3Dspeedmachine.com
Maya has become the de facto standard in the computer graphics world for animation and visual effects, and it is without question the most popular (and arguably most successful) of Autodesk’s long lineup of products. Many animation studios, VFX houses, and game development studios live by it. You cannot be involved in the computer graphics community without knowing something about the venerable animation package.
Maya is a tour de force of 3D computer graphics. The software package handles 3D modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, matchmoving, compositing, and rendering, among other things. Each year Maya brings new technology to the table, and has led the industry in the majority of technical advancements for years. In fact, in 2003, the software was given an Academy Award for outstanding technological achievement. Understanding this package in the industry is like understanding how to use a scalpel in the medical industry—it is generally assumed, and almost expected, that everyone knows it.
One of the key features of Maya that has played a large role in its success is its expandability. Maya supports plugins and addons from first and third parties alike. This open nature has allowed studios with unique or specific workflows to custom tailor the software to fit their needs as necessary. Maya features a massive backlog of available plugins currently, and if you’re unable to find a tool to do the job, you can always create your own in Mel Script or Python, both of which Maya natively supports. Autodesk also offers an API to assist in Maya development.
Maya is one of the most approachable 3D packages thanks to the thriving community. Not only does every online community with a focus on 3D have a majority favor towards Maya, but Autodesk also maintains their own community portal dubbed The Area. Full of detailed tutorials, resources, and knowledgeable forum members, this community portal can assist all Maya users of any skill level. Where finding resources for Softimage, 3DS Max, Lightwave, or any other 3D package may be a chore with disappointing results, Maya users can rest assured that thanks to the massive online presence, help and education is never too far away.
What’s new for 2011
Between Mudbox, Motionbuilder, and Maya, the latter has received the most interesting updates. Of these updates, most notable to long time users of Maya is the updated user interface. The UI now sports a darker color scheme, which is much easier on the eyes during long endurance sessions. The overall icon and tool placement remains consistent with previous versions, so returning users will not feel lost in Maya 2011. It is, however, in its flexibility that the UI redesign really shines—it empowers users to fully customize their workspace to optimize their experience.
Tool menus can now be docked and undocked to different locations. While dragging a menu, portions of the UI will slide aside to indicate a dockable location. Once the users chooses a location for the menu, all of the corresponding menus slide around until the new menu is in place. The entire process looks very polished and impressive. Furthermore, the menus can also be manually resized. Again, this process is dynamic and is accomplished with style.
The file browser has been updated as well. The new browser feels much more intuitive than the previous incarnation, and the whole system is much easier to use now, especially when navigating your computer’s file system.
General performance of the application has been increased in almost every department. While using Maya 2011 with the FirePro v8800, I was experiencing obscenely fast viewport performance. Particle and simulation calculation times were also much faster in Maya 2011 compared to last year’s version.
Maya 2011 also introduces 64-bit support for Mac. 64-bit support allows for higher performance in the handling of large assets and scenes thanks to the compatibility with massive amounts of memory. This long needed addition will ultimately lead to significant performance boosts in the application on Mac. In an industry where Maya usage is primarily PC-centric, 64-bit may help spark greater interest in Mac adoption in larger studios.
Understanding that scripting is a major component to Maya, it is also excellent that Autodesk has updated the script editor. The editor now functions as most high level IDEs do—there is syntax highlighting, and the editor now auto-completes commands and object path names. Python scripting has been given very specific attention with this update, as the highly popular PyMel plugin is now officially integrated with Maya 2011. Python support is now stronger than ever.
The Maya 2011 script editor
The smörgåsbord of updates in Maya 2011 serve to keep it on top of the industry from technical and functional standpoints alike. The expansive feature set and sheer magnitude of available operations within the product make it a very compelling choice to anyone in the business of digital content creation. When combined with its massive community, both online and in the real world, there is no question why Maya is used as the golden standard for entertainment creation.
Mudbox 2011
Model credit goes to Mashru Mishu
Mudbox is, in the simplest of terms, a program that simulates playtime with a ball of clay. Whereas Maya is used to bring digital models to life, Mudbox is used to literally sculpt those models in high detail. Mudbox allows modelers and texture artists to build production assets without having to worry about the superfluous technical mumbo-jumbo.
Mudbox gives the artist a massive collection of sculpting tools that smooth, grab, pinch, flatten, scrape, remove, add, and modify the digital clay. These tools reflect many real-world counterparts, so artists can focus on the art just as they would with an actual block of clay. Mudbox coupled with a Wacom Cintiq, for instance, becomes a supreme example of intuitive technology simulating physical art.
The software is hardly limited to just sculpting. Mudbox handles painting on models directly in real-time, texture baking for normal, displacement, and occlusion maps, model posing and transformation, viewport rendering, and quick output of 360 degree turntable animations. The further one digs into Mudbox’s feature set, the more blatant it becomes that despite its primary focus as a digital sculpting program, sculpting models is only the tip of the iceberg.
What’s new for 2011
Like music to the ears of various Autodesk users, upgrades have been made to Mudbox 2011 that gives the software greater interoperability with Autodesk Softimage 2011, 3DS Max 2011, and Maya 2011. Hotkeys that mirror their reflective 3D packages are now in place to help users work in comfort. Models from Softimage, 3DS Max, and Maya can now be imported into Mudbox as well, with their weighted skeletons remaining fully intact and able to be manipulated with Mudbox’s posing system.
Speed in the approval process has been a large focus of Mudbox’s enhancements for 2011. The posing toolset has been configured for maximum efficiency. Once the model has been created (or imported) and posed, Mudbox is able to quickly automate a turntable animation and render the video out to a myriad of different formats. The idea is quick output to showcase the work or to have it sent off for approval, and it is all done within the software.
Mudbox 2011, despite its intricate complexities, is a remarkably simple package. Prior to installing the suite, I had never even seen Mudbox’s UI until I first booted it up. After a few moments of familiarizing myself with the toolset, I was able to begin sculpting and creating real results. There is much to learn in a sculpting package like this, but new users should not shy away—its operating environment is quite friendly.
Modelers will often point at the similarities between Autodesk’s Mudbox and Pixologic’s Z-Brush. Both ofter digital sculpting and rigging/posing tools. After spending time with Mudbox 2011, I see a clear advantage thanks to its interoperability with the Creative Suite. Having an animation package and modeling packing in one suite is a one-two punch, and the tight integration lends to Mudbox’s strength. If Z-Brush is all you’ve even known, give Mudbox a try. It will more than likely be a pleasant surprise.
MotionBuilder 2011
MotionBuilder is one of the newest products in Autodesk’s expansive arsenal. Only in its sophomore release, the product has already made a name for itself in the industry with its involvement in games like Heavenly Sword, Assassin’s Creed and FarCry 2, as well as the box office smash hit AVATAR (ed.note: I knew it! I knew you couldn’t prevent an AVATAR reference!). At its core, MotionBuilder is 3D character animation software with a strong focus on motion capture handling and cleanup. Keyframe animation is also done within MotionBuilder, which is complemented by a wide suite of tools.
Think of it this way; like Mudbox, you don’t technically need to use MotionBuilder, as Maya is perfectly capable of handling animation, just as it handles modeling and rigging. However, when you need to dig into very high polygon models and add very fine details, you’re going to want to jump over to Mudbox. The same is true of MotionBuilder. When you need to author motion capture data or put fine tuned adjustments to animations, you’re best off working in MotionBuilder.
MotionBuilder is built around a real-time architecture. Everything you edit, build, move, and animate happens in real-time, the majority of the work being done on the GPU. This engine allows for lightning quick performance, and makes for a very efficient animation pipeline. The engine makes MotionBuilder ideal for pre-vis, allowing artists to quickly proof their work to a director without costly renders required of more traditional means.
What’s New for 2011
Most of MotionBuilder’s 2011 updates are in the optimization department. Many tweaks and adjustments have been done to the package to ensure maximum speed and productivity in daily work. The time spent has paid off—MotionBuilder is a very polished package, which is surprising for such a new product. Everything is fast, and few times does the software get in the way of the artist.
A major change is how the software handles the saving and exporting of files. MotionBuilder now outputs platform-independent Autodesk FBX files that are interoperable with Maya without the need of any additional importing work. Transitioning from Maya to MotionBuilder and finally back to Maya is as easy as saving and opening the appropriate file.
The animation layers menu has been greatly enhanced with this release. The new layer editor replaces the layer panes in the FCurves window. Those familiar with Maya’s animation layer editor will feel very comfortable with MotionBuilder’s new editor, as Autodesk has rebuilt it to function similarly to Maya’s. Users will now be able to take a more commanding control over their animation layers with the new editor. Along with the toolset of layer editing tools, there are also added blending modes and layer accumulation modes.
MotionBuilder is an impressive tool that works very well within this suite. I can think of few software packages better suited for fast animation work, and perhaps none are better suited for mocap capturing, editing, and cleanup. With the growing trend of real-time applications and GPU computing, Autodesk MotionBuilder is in the right place at the right time.
Final Thoughts
The Autodesk Maya Entertainment Creation Suite is an impressive collection of software. Maya, Mudbox, and MotionBuilder are fantastic products by themselves, but when combined into one massive productivity suite, they become unstoppable. The value in this suite is outstanding.
At an MSRP of $4,995.00 for the non-subscription suite, (or $5,840.00 with the subscription), the suite is not for the home enthusiasts that feel like playing around with 3D. If you are serious about digital content creation and are looking for a one stop shop to create work at an industry level, you should look no further. The combined software makes this suite the perfect entry point to begin creating professional level content.
Professionals who use any of these products on a regular basis should not even think twice about upgrading. The new features and enhancements are worth the price of admission alone. Mac users should be especially happy with the 64-bit support, which will probably send a sweeping wave of updates across the industry Mac users.
For those in the industry, the choice is clear. For those learning the ropes, almost all directions point to it. This is serious digital content creation software. The Autodesk Maya Entertainment Creation Suite is a jack of all trades, and the master of, well, all.
Articles RSS