Autodesk announce immediately availability of Maya 2013. Maya 2013 delivers new toolsets for dynamic simulation, rendering, and animation; implements an Open data initiative to facilitate non-linear workflows; and provides solutions to create and maintain open pipelines.
Enhancements to the Maya Nucleus framework, including the addition of a new Maya nHair module, combined with the new open source AMD Bullet Physics engine, help you create complex and realistic simulations.
With the high-performance and high-quality Viewport 2.0, new features have been added to expand the level of support, so artists can efficiently evaluate their work in a higher fidelity interactive environment.
Improvements to rigging tools, the ability to match Trax clips, enhancements to the Graph Editor, and a new Heat Map Skinning method offer an enhanced animation experience.
Additionally, improvements to file referencing workflows and the support of Alembic and Animation Transfer Object Model (ATOM) file formats make Maya 2013 easier to integrate into open pipelines.
Key changes:
General- 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.
Basics- 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.
File Referencing- 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.
Modeling- 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.
Animation- 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.
Rigging- The new Heat Map binding method uses a heat diffusion technique to distribute weights, and gives you better results than the existing binding methods
Dynamics and nDynamics- 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.
Rendering and Render Setup- 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.
For more details visit: Autodesk