What's New in Autodesk Maya

Alembic files provide artists with a fast workflow for passing complex scene data between various areas of a production pipeline. The new Pipeline Cache tools let you save and load scene files as Alembic-based cache files, which provide performance improvements including accelerated loading of large scenes, faster play back of complex character animations, and real-time play back of geometry data with topology changes.

In addition, new single-step workflows let you send scene data between Maya and 3ds Max.

See What's New in General.

The new Node Editor lets you view, modify and create node connections using an editable schematic that displays nodes and the connections between their attributes. This interactive tool lets you build and edit networks of nodes using a simple click-and-drag method.

You can customize the Attribute Editor layout by creating custom views and attribute controls for node types and specific nodes. Customized XML-based templates are loaded by selecting new options in the Attribute Editor Show menu.

See What's New in Basics.

New File reference options in the Outliner make it easier to manage your file references outside of the Reference Editor. These options include new Reference menu items and a Reference Node display option that lets you locate and identify the loaded and unloaded file references in your scene.

Similarly, other new features and options improve a number of file referencing workflows. Now you can edit animation curves in referenced files, perform referencing operations on multiple references, view the contents of unloaded references in your scene, and include files associated with unloaded references in the scene archive.

See What's New in File Referencing.

The Extrude Tool now has Thickness, Offset and Divisions values to allow for greater precision. Other tool improvements include the addition of a background colour for improved readability and the ability to use Ctrl and Shift to more quickly adjust values.

The new Brush strength slider in the Sculpt Geometry Tool lets you adjust the amount of pinching that is applied while sculpting.

See What's New in Modeling.

When blending between clips of animation in the Trax Editor, new clip matching manipulators and options let you define an offset to properly align the clips in an animation sequence. Updated Trax Editor options include clip Offset settings for absolute or relative offsets and Rotation Blend settings with simpler Euler and Quaternion options.

Maya's new ATOM file type gives animators a fast workflow for repurposing existing animation as new characters are created. The .atom file type and its associated import/export options let you save specific poses or animation sequences, then easily reload them onto other objects.

In addition, the new Retime Tool lets you directly adjust the timing of key movements in your animations. A new type of timing manipulator is available in the Graph Editor that lets you shift or warp animation. Similar animation retiming tools are available in other Autodesk applications. Other changes to the Graph Editor include updates to the View menu and toolbar icons.

See What's New in Animation.

The new Heat Map binding method uses a heat diffusion technique to distribute weights, and gives you better results than the existing binding methods.

Updates to the HumanIK character setup tools increase usability and streamline common character setup workflows: a unified interface lets you perform multiple tasks in a single window; character layouts can be customized to fit specific requirements; and HumanIK animation is easily retargeted to and from a custom rigged character.

Additionally, new properties and options give you improved control over roll bone behavior and animation rigs.

See What's New in Rigging.

The nHair hair generation system is the newest addition to the Nucleus dynamic simulation framework. With the ability to self-collide and interact with other Nucleus objects, nHair has many advantages over the previous hair system. Improvements include faster performance with a large number of follicles, better collision accuracy and control, the ability to create nConstraints, and nCaching for saving and playing back hair simulations.

Maya now includes the MayaBullet physics simulation plug-in. Built from the Bullet physics library, the plug-in lets you use the Bullet physics engine to create large-scale, highly-realistic dynamic and kinematic simulations. MayaBullet simulations can include interacting soft body and rigid body objects, as well as constrained collision objects, all contained in a single dynamic system within Maya.

See What's New in Dynamics and nDynamics.

New Viewport 2.0 features include support for image planes and animation and rigging features such as HumanIK, joints, motion paths, ghosting and playblast. New polygons, NURBS and dynamics features have been added. Improvements in tumble and animation performance of large scenes are also included.

The new Mandelbrot node allows you to texture your model with the Mandelbrot set. You can create a 2D version of this node (Mandelbrot), a 3D version of this node (Mandelbrot 3D), or shade a fluidShape node using the built-in Mandelbrot texture.

A new simplified workflow lets you automatically bake a substance texture to disk to render it with mental ray for Maya, IPR, or other 3rd party renderers. Several new substance textures have also been added.

See What's New in Rendering and Render Setup.