Autodesk Maya 2010 – Supercharged 3D Simulation Engine
Memorable movies and animated video games include numerous scenes and special affects incorporating Maya Unlimited tools: Maya nParticles, Maya nCloth, Maya Fluid Effects, Maya Hair, and Maya Fur.

With these powerful tools, Maya 2010 adds Maya MatchMover and Composite (Toxik) for a complete workflow producing futuristic digital images, realistic animations, and stunning visual effects. Maya 2010 provides enhanced creative control and a supercharged, simulation engine.

Maya is not for beginners learning how to create 3D animation video. And it’s fairly expensive, yet Autodesk takes different education situations into account. Their most attractive offering pricewise for students/education accounts are the Suites, rather than individual software packages. If students and artists want to advance their careers, Maya 2010 is a must to add to your 3D repertoire.

New for Maya 2010
These highlights identify some new features within Autodesk Maya 2010:
• Maya Unlimited toolset (new for Maya complete)
• Maya Composite – high dynamic range composting
• Autodesk MatchMover – camera tracker
• Five batch rendering nodes
• Autodesk Backburner network render manager

Maya Unlimited Toolset

The Maya Unlimited Toolset incorporates Maya nCloth and Maya nParticles, plus Maya Fluid Effects, Maya Hair, and Maya Fur. Whether it’s a graceful tablecloth floating over a dining table, a brisk wind coursing through dawn soaked sails, or the fluid aspects of hair or water, the Maya Unlimited Toolset provides powerful tools to create realistic animations.

Maya Composite
Maya Composite (Toxik) is a high performance, high dynamic range (HDR) composting tool included in Maya 2010. Whereas Toxik 2009 was available for Windows, Maya Composite is now available for Mac users. Maya Composite provides tools to connect passes and renders created in Maya into a final composition. The properties of each tool can be changed, and to obtain the right look, these properties can be adjusted. If desired, adjustments can also be key framed. Maya Composite’s toolset allows for keying, tracking, color correction, paint, rotoscoping, warping, and advanced filters (motion blur and depth of field). In short, Maya 2010 offers a full 3D compositing environment with support for stereoscopic production pipelines. Whether the artist is adding CG to film or video, or creating a sophisticated multilayer animation, Maya has the chops.

Autodesk MatchMover
MatchMover gives artists the power to seamlessly integrate 3D animation with live video. It provides automated tools for 3D camera and motion tracking for video and film. Manual tracking can also be applied to improve accuracy. Match-moving can be as simple as importing the sequence into MatchMover, selecting the appropriate interlace, frame rate and other camera data, and then choosing Automatic Tracking from the 2D Tracking menu. Alternatively, users can add and adjust manual tracks to create a 3D camera track. Manual tracks may be used to create a common coordinate system between the video and CG elements. Manual tracks can also track in 3D the motion of non-rigid objects, like the human face or piece of cloth, allowing users to synchronize video sequences, and match the motion between CG characters, or props with real objects, or actors.

Free Trials and Tutorials
For Maya 2010, Autodesk offers a 30-day free trial, outstanding online tutorials and support. Maya 2010 provides a full throttled animation and simulation environment to choreograph eye-popping advertisements and box office winners.

System Requirements:

Contact: www.autodesk.com
Cost: $3,495 US