LAS VEGAS - Toronto's Alias|Wavefront www.aliaswavefront.com is showing the upcoming Version 5 release of Maya at this year's NAB. The 3D animation tool has been enhanced with numerous features that are designed to increase customer productivity.
Enhancements to the software's animation tools include constraints, FK/IK and ghosting to give users more control and flexibility. New polygonal modeling tools have been added and improved polygon redution help streamline workflow and support efficient model development.
Rendering technology and workflow have also been enhanced.
A new hardware renderer quickly generates images for pre-visualization and broadcast-quality final output. A new vector renderer converts 3D content into 2D graphics, including hidden-line views and cartoon-style. It can be output to Flash, Adobe Illustrator and EPS and SVG.
The user interface is now more consistent regardless of the different rendering options (Mental Ray, Maya software renderer, vector renderer and hardware renderer).
Paint Effects can now be drawn as, or converted to, polygons for greater editing and output options as well as for numerous new looks. Fur now supports new looks such as matted, wet or dirty fur and animated fur spreading across a surface. New Fluid Effects capabilities include "Pond" and "Wake" features, with true dynamic waves.
Maya's hardware rendering has been enhanced by taking advantage of next-generation graphics hardware to generate images significantly faster. Enhanced or new data support formats include: Flash, DWG, DXF, Adobe Illustrator, Encapsulated PostScript, Scalable Vector Graphics, IGES, OpenFlight, StudioTools and OBJ.