Maya 7 Press Release

[itsallgoode9]

sounds like a couple cool new things in there. whether it's a good update or not, i don't care, i'm excited:eek:.... i'm a techwhore lol

[SheepFactory]

wow they are releasing it this month too.

[roger3d]

Cool! I can´t wait to use it!!!

The studio I work for has platinum membership!!!:bounce:

[ReBootedOne]

I'm am SO glad I never bought Maya 6 or 6.5 (I stuck with 5). yay!

Now I just need to wait for it show up on JourneyED. :)

-eric

[MaDSheeP]

No mention of 64 bit support... waa...

But everything else looks great, I can't wait to play with it!

[NUKE-CG]

They haven't updated the page with videos or the daunting 150+ page PDF yet.

From what I've heard and seen, this is a huge release.

[SheepFactory]

Yea i wonder why they didnt update the site. Probably waiting for the expo to start.

[SFG]

Can you upgrade educational versions?

[Bonedaddy]

I just got back from AGUA, where they unveiled it. Highlights:

- They made Fluid Effects much better
- Amazing blendshapes tools
- The toon shader f-ing pwns you

It must be stressed, I have no plans on ever creating cartoon-like animations, or rendering anything out with any sort of cel-shaded look. But I do not think I can live without the toon shader. It's that extensible and useful.

Wait for stuff to show up on the web about it. I can't do it justice.

EDIT: Oh yeah, render layers. The render layer system is pretty cool.

[Bonedaddy]

And no, no 64-bit support. Yet. But they did show an in-progress 64-bit Maya, where they laid down polygonized paint effects until the screen was almost completely solid blue in wireframe mode -- and the camera moves were still very responsive.

Maya 7 is an awesome release. I am ecstatic.

[nubian]

omfg...:wackit:
just hope the sudden buggy crashing issues are fixed.

[amitnike]

its rocks i bet... lucky for u guys who cud go to launch of maya 7 :(.........

cheers..

Amit

[arneltapia]

I think its time to test Motion Builder in Maya. :)

[CIM]

EDIT: Oh yeah, render layers. The render layer system is pretty cool.

Lets hope the render layers system has been expanded greatly. If it's at least as good as XSI's, I'll finally be happy with it. :rolleyes:

[akaiwa]

Oh man, I'm so glad Maya's finally getting an integrated toon renderer. Maya's always been like a joke for rendering toon-style images... almost every other program does it natively, or has an amazing plugin for it. I can't wait to see some exaples.

The fluid effect realism is also intriguing, but I want to know what impact this extra detail has on rendering times? Fluids take so incredibly long on my computer I never bother to use them for animation.

Edit-
Bonedaddy: Could you please say a little more about the toon rendering? You tease us with a mention of how amazing and flexible it is, yet you give no examples/detail? Eviiiil. :D

[helicopterr]

I hope they improved the native software render.

[cpan]

I hope they improved the native software render.

i hope not :) and instead improved mentalray to be able to render anything that software was rendering so they can finally remove software renderer and make mentalrays integration much better (by removing software related settings all over the render nodes and making those mentalray tabs in AE history)

[MaDSheeP]

Or sells a bundle version with Maya's renderman, with a free Nemo doll... ok ok, I'd take it without the doll... but I would be mad.

[fahr]

Remove the software renderer...?

So I suppose your 5-500 machine render farm are all running liscenced copies of mental ray standalone then?

Unfortunately, there are those of us smaller shops that rather appreciate not having to pay 1k per cpu in order to get our animations rendered. While I encourage Alias to continue improving their integration and support of 3rd party renderers (let them all have access to all of maya's tools and provide a consistent UI for accesing them), I also urge alias to not completely forget about their software renderer, which is an excellent option for smaller shops. I, for one, would simply be happy with a few "bonus tool" shaders like the lightengine3d ones (Ambient Occlusion and sub surface scattering), so we dont have to wait for the awesome Mark Davies to port them to Maya 7 (win, linux, osx).

Unless, of course, Mark is bored while crunching on King Kong... um... yeah. ;)

[SheepFactory]

Bonedaddy,

what was so special about the toon shader , say compared to the xsi toon shader or the c4d's sketch module?

[roger3d]

Bonedaddy,

what was so special about the toon shader , say compared to the xsi toon shader or the c4d's sketch module?

and compared to Tomcat toonshader, too?:)

[Bonedaddy]

They didn't go into the render layers system in great detail, but you can basically assign a multitude of different shaders, hide/show objects, etc on different layers, and it'll output it all to different subdirectories.

The toon shader system is really interesting. I haven't used other toon systems, so I can't speak to those, but my impression of toon shading has always been one of beefed-up ramp shaders mixed in with some contour shading malarky. This is radically different. It's an outgrowth of the paint effects system, or so it looked. Basically, it doesn't exist just as a shader. Each toon outline is a separate object that is dynamically created along with the object. It converts to nurbs or poly on the fly, updates as you rotate your window. Duncan actually lifted the outline off of the object, and started rotating it around. It was uncanny.

The whole system seemed ridiculously well-featured and well-thought out. He showed toon shading in every style I could think of, including using paint effects strokes (all updating in realtime in the viewport), and then started pulling off really weird tricks. Like using it to create paint effects wake dynamically as a boat pushed through an ocean. Or giving something a realtime halo. Or pushing a pyramid into a box, and having paint effects fluff pop up all around where they intersected, like he was cutting into a teddy bear. Or creating cartoony clouds by taking a white sphere, applying a noisy white toon shader which simulated fluffiness, and adding a toon shader to that toon shader, to give it a blueish contour -- which gradated nicely near the top, to give the illusion of light hitting the cloud.

The toon shader stuff is raytraceable, shows up in reflections, etc. You can project a nurbs curve on a surface and give it a toon shader, as he demonstrated, creating an upper lip indentation. You can change how it works on different parts of the body (i.e. have less quick falloff into shadow on the fingers).

The most insane stuff, from my vantage point, was the line deformer (I think that's what it was called?). It basically was a sphere one could move around, which would perform any number of interesting things when it intersected toon objects or paint effects. He showed one thing where he put it in a bunch of grass, which turned yellow and died shortly thereafter (think Mononoke Hime). He showed another where it started to yank the toon lines off of the object as it intersected it. Or made the lines extend past the edges of the object. Or displaced off of the object.

If Alias could rig some version of the line deformer to work on dynamics, I would be one happy chappy -- custom fields, baby.



Mods, I hope this post isn't in any way against policy. Alias showed it to a theatre full of people, even if the info's not on the net yet. If I am asked to take it down, I will. And, of course, my employer has nothing to do with what I've said, this is just me being obsessive on my own time.

[Bonedaddy]

The fluids, they didn't say a whole lot about, but basically, they worked out the code so everything isn't so diffused anymore. Duncan said this was actually the work of Jos Strom (I am probably butchering his name), who won S2005's "awesome totallly spiffy programmer of the year" award*. It's a lot easier to get isolated, fine detail, without everything bunching together and being all curvy. And I could be wrong, but it looked like they got rid of the fluid box limitation. Again, they didn't say much about it, so hard for me to tell for sure.


* I may be making up the name of the award. But it sounded very prestigious. And the man is really friggin tall.


EDIT: Best part of the show had to be the very end, where Duncan demoed the toon shader in action by showing a short animation he did of himself as a South Park character, along with Jos (who was represented only by his leg, the rest was offscreen). Duncan did all the voices, which were pretty incomprehensible. Got big laughs from the crowd, though, and looked really pretty good, I have to say. He actually rigged up a drop-shadow effect in the shader so that it looked like the paper cut-outs were casting slight shadows on the paper behind them.

[sketchguy]

I, too, was at AGUA tonight. Bonedaddy pretty much summed up the toon shader stuff. It was very impressive and I'm looking forward to working with it. Duncan showed a multitude of possibilities. Being able to toon displaced bump maps also was very cool.

Another great feature being implemented is dealing with polySmooth. You can now select edges and interactively sharpen them! This is such a time saver and now you don't have to double up your low-res geo to get sharper edges in the smoothed version.

Also, you can now select an edge loop in the lo res poly cage, offset (similar to when inserting a new isoparm on a NURBs surface) and then insert a new row or column. Like an integrated version of Bryon's Polytools.

Rob Coleman's ILM presentation was, as always, impressive.

Looking forward to the Luxology event on Tuesday night!

-Steve

[SheepFactory]

good stuff guys , cant wait to get down there tomorrow and see those in person.

[ThomasMahler]

Seems like the leaked pdf was real, after all. Very nice, should be a great release. I'm looking forward to all the new rigging stuff, especially the Topology Independence for blendShapes is awesome.

Also, as sketchguy already mentioned: I'm sure that a lot of people will appreciate the new subD features - Very interesting, especially since Rfm should be released soon.

[beaker]

Oh man, I'm so glad Maya's finally getting an integrated toon renderer. Maya's always been like a joke for rendering toon-style images... almost every other program does it natively, or has an amazing plugin for it. I can't wait to see some exaples.Where have you been? Maya has had a toon renderer since version 5.0 back in 2003.

[meats]

The new toon shader is indeed awesome, I can't wait to mess around with it, it really blew me away. All of the new Maya 7 stuff that they showed was really impressive.

Most of all:

Congratulations to Steven Stahlberg for receiving a Maya Master award this evening!!

[Jackdeth]

Doesn't look like I missed much. These updates are getting thinner and thinner every year. I think I made the better choice by staying home and cooking up some steaks instead of treking off to down town.

blah.

[cpan]

what are u talking about? since alias sold out from SGI they did a great job with maya 6.x (rewrote many tools and did lots of speed optimisations) and now 7.0 has a bunch of new tools in the rendering, modeling, animation, etc... i think this is really a great release :)

[Jackdeth]

Anyone who beats on this software alot knows that it's always takes a year before any of the flashy demo stuff is actually production worthy. Paint FX and Fluids took a long time before they could be used for real work.. and even still they have a million problems. Aslo, we all also know never to trust thier X.0 releases for stability reasons. Always wait unit X.01a before upgrading.

EDIT, I'm not trying to be an ass to the Alias people, but they do have a history of this ( I've been a loyal customer since PowerAnimator v4.5) . I love them and hate them all at the same time.

[beaker]

I do like a lot of the new features, but there were many that you have always been able to do that Alias just made them more accessible or easier to use. Although someone in the audience seemed to think they were the best thing since sliced bread because it sounded like they were going to faint after each was announced.

[beaker]

Oh yea, I said this in the other thread. All you cell phone bitches at siggraph, TURN OFF YOUR F'ING PHONE during presentations, or atleast turn it on vibrate. I've never been around so many rude people ringing.

[NUKE-CG]

Doesn't look like I missed much. These updates are getting thinner and thinner every year. I think I made the better choice by staying home and cooking up some steaks instead of treking off to down town.

blah.
You've heard of a mere fraction of the features, so I say you eat those steaks with some Patience Sauce. Yum yum.

And stability can be a problem, and cause slow-downs in production. But also having new tools can speed up the creation process. A trade-off which is an individual decision, for good and bad.

[Pixero]

What about better Mentalray integration? Anything?

[cpan]

What about better Mentalray integration? Anything?

Same question from me too! But i'm sure they did also improve mray integration aswell... Since they sold from SGI, only good things happened:thumbsup:

[thematt]

Doesn't look like I missed much. These updates are getting thinner and thinner every year. I think I made the better choice by staying home and cooking up some steaks instead of treking off to down town.

blah.
__________________
Colin Strause
http://www.hydraulx.com/


I'm sure even you Colin, could put in use the new render by layer, since it work with mental ray :), but I'm also sure it wouldn't worth you missing a nice homemade steak for that ;)..yumeeee

cheers

[kizoku]

Long live the upgrade-from-previous-versions-option!

[BigSky]

Full body IK seems to me the bomb. I'm still waiting for tomorrow for download, but :applause: it looks like a great release. I see that they have now unlimited renderbuffers for MR, (at least the "fake" "real" .pdf announced it..). Good work. Enjoy the show.

[CaptainSam]

Id love to see if all the improvements they did to referencing in 6.5, which was the only thing of interest to me in that upgrade, now actually work. In 6.5 its just a joke, like having references misssing parts of the animation, or all of it, after being reloaded. As Im writing this, Im restarting Maya and loading a scene that crashed while I was unloading a reference.

So they finally gave up on improving their character animation tools, which have remained unchanged for the most part since Maya 1.0, and incorporated MotionBuilders IK instead. Wonder how many releases its gonna take to get all that different code to work properly with Maya

Edit:
Ok, so now Ive reloaded the scene, and the animation on one of the characters has been merssed up. Whoohoo, something fun in every release

[kemijo]

Full body IK seems to me the bomb. I'm still waiting for tomorrow for download, but :applause: it looks like a great release. I see that they have now unlimited renderbuffers for MR, (at least the "fake" "real" .pdf announced it..). Good work. Enjoy the show.

Agreed, the new Full Body IK solver (basically lifted right out of MotionBuilder) is what I'm really looking forward to on the rigging side. Particle GoalPPs can finally be used separately on multiple goals. Subdivs are not only fully supported by the new PRman, but Maya's Subdivs now use part of the Pixar patent for creasing! That's great news, they've caught up to Houdini for subdiv rendering in RenderMan. Everything's got a nice bit of an overhaul, I'm certainly happy with the changes on paper anyway. If only they had the current Pixar cloth solver, not the old one...

There seems to be a lot of nice little functionality features as well.

[eatbug]

http://www.softimage.com/Products/Xsi/v5/features/media/Maya_Migration.jpg (http://www.softimage.com/Products/Xsi/v5/features/media/Maya_Migration.jpg),

OMG,xsi 5's Maya_Migration .not bad:)

[carstenw]

Same question from me too! But i'm sure they did also improve mray integration aswell... Since they sold from SGI, only good things happened:thumbsup:

yes, the mental ray integration has also been improved. there are two guys working fulltime on this, so it will always get better.

mental ray itself has also improved in some notable ways. final gathering improvements are one, as well as a noticeably faster rasterizer, with less "issues".

[morimitsu]

http://www.softimage.com/Products/Xsi/v5/features/media/Maya_Migration.jpg,

OMG, xsi 5 vs maya 7

xsi 6 will have paint effects and fluids! hehe. just kidding.:D

[cpan]

lol this translation to maya thinggie is a clever way to copy maya's features lol.
take a look at that image... now xsi has a channelbox, tearring menus, copy and paste in teh timeline... lol! what a clever way to steal from others :)


happy new year guys! alias, discreet, softimage, newtek all released apps in one day!! BTW, after reading all these softs improvments, it seems maya has the best new features, then it comes xsi, then lightwave and max.

[-=TF=-]

some more maya7 info, in german
http://www.alias-systems.de/produkte/alias_maya/new/index.php

[KidderD]

Yeah, XSI update is strong, but it relies on things that are going to happen (64 bit) and physics chip could also be used in Maya soon as well. I assume that not knowing exactly what was put into the maya update, where are thier videos?

[elvis75k]

whooooaa.. finally.. It's like alias is updating the page in realtime now..

[shingo]

You have got to be joking. Apart from the full body IK, there's hardly anything new that isn't in the other 3 apps.

Face Robot from Softimage takes the cake big time for best innovation IMHO.

lol this translation to maya thinggie is a clever way to copy maya's features lol.
take a look at that image... now xsi has a channelbox, tearring menus, copy and paste in teh timeline... lol! what a clever way to steal from others :)


happy new year guys! alias, discreet, softimage, newtek all released apps in one day!! BTW, after reading all these softs improvments, it seems maya has the best new features, then it comes xsi, then lightwave and max.

[morimitsu]

I want to see Maya 7 video demos and more info about it!:bounce:

[CaptainSam]

Unfortunately, Maya 7 will only be available in German, so you have to go to the German site to read the specs. Maya 7.01 will be a proper release in English.

http://www.alias-systems.de/produkte/alias_maya/new/index.php

[cpan]

http://www.cgorama.com/filez/maya7.doc

[elvis75k]

http://www.alias.co.jp/products-services/maya/new/

http://www.alias.co.jp/products-services/maya/new/img/int_viewcompass.jpg

This endless need to have any info..

[AA_Tyrael]

You gotta agree though that having Full IK inside maya is big time help..

I guess Softimage is gonna get big time sales from the face robot especially with the new "maya convesion"(hotkeys etc)

[cpan]

maybe that's the new compass feature... wo knows :)

for mentalray users: yahooo!!! now we can preview mentalray custom shaders in Attribute Editor and Hypershade swatches! yesss :bounce:

Also mray supports unlimitted number of buffers, can render Hair w/o converting to polys and it finally suports all utilities (hsv_remap, etc)

[elvis75k]

How long we have to wait and what we are waiting for?
just some cool gmk_maya7 swf videos?

This is a great day for the nasdaq.. hehe

[shingo]

Absolutely, but didn't we kinda expect it with Alais buying up Kaydara?

personalyl, i'm surprised there are so few Motion builder features actually in there. Wil be interesting to see how rthe full body IK is implemented though. Motion Builder takes a black box approach, and whilke the MB rig is very impressive, a lot of places using Maya are still going to continue to want to build their own rigs I would imagine.

You gotta agree though that having Full IK inside maya is big time help..

I guess Softimage is gonna get big time sales from the face robot especially with the new "maya convesion"(hotkeys etc)

[kfc]

Thank god that maya doesn't need to change it's interface to mimic other app to push sales.
:P

With bodypaint, RAT for 6.5 plugin just available. I don't think i'll be upgrading any time soon.

[thematt]

Motion Builder takes a black box approach, and whilke the MB rig is very impressive, a lot of places using Maya are still going to continue to want to build their own rigs I would imagine OH YEAH......

[NUKE-CG]

Alias are missing out on some prime audience exposure right now.

People actually think that the small amount that they've put in that little PDF file is it for this release.

If I were ignorant, I'd jump to XSI because they've put up videos and quite a bit of information. But I know better...

Tick tock Alias... English speakers are waiting... :)

[elvis75k]

Alias are missing out on some prime audience exposure right now.

People actually think that the small amount that they've put in that little PDF file is it for this release.

If I were ignorant, I'd jump to XSI because they've put up videos and quite a bit of information. But I know better...

Tick tock Alias... English speakers are waiting... :)

I'm not english at all but i'm quitting my office.. and the internet cnx.. so i loose the day..
I'm ready to watch the xsi videos at home.. my pendrive is full.. no place for maya7 stuff today.. :twisted:

[fro0ty]

Unfortunately, Maya 7 will only be available in German, so you have to go to the German site to read the specs. Maya 7.01 will be a proper release in English.

http://www.alias-systems.de/produkte/alias_maya/new/index.php
I do hope your very wrong, It would be a shame for us English language users to have to have to wait for a 7.01 release

bte Alias' Japanese website has Maya 7 listed

http://www.alias.co.jp/products-services/maya/new/

[MunCHeR]

The Maya7 overview pdf mentions marking menus and 3D manipulators, is this realluy supposed to get our saliva running and our wallets out? Well atleast were not using MAX :D
Did someone say they're updating their website? Might just go buy XSI foundation.

MunCH

[Rick Flowers]

OMG

Render Layers to PSD

Using the new render layers functionality, artists can render a series of layers and produce a layered PSD file as the output. Sequentially numbered PSD files can also be read into Adobe After Effects.

Render Layers to SWFT (Flash smart layers)

As of Maya 7, the vector renderer can be used to produce a special layered SWFT file readable by Macromedia Flash with the SmartLayer importer plug-in from Electric Rain. The SWFT file can contain color, specular, reflections, transparency and shadow on separate layers. This allows you to work with the separate layers in Macromedia Flash – for example, they could have the specular element show up as a rollover effect, or create low bandwidth versions that included only the color layer.

=DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD :bounce:

READ that maya7.doc that dude posted! It's excellent.
Maya 7 is like, the best release ever

[jeremybirn]

To call the new pfx-based edge stokes just a part of a toon shader is like calling a car just another CD player. This is an "edge mapping" technology that can add displacement to the edges of things that are actually simplied geometry and even be lit to add bevels without adding to the poly count. And this is a route to add effects at the intersection of two things that are cutting through eachother as well.

People haven't talked much about the modeling: edge loop selection & creation giving poly/sub-D modelers a lot more NURBS-like tools for inserting or moving things that work like isoparms. And variable edge hardness for proxy smooth (No more of that stupid multiple-choice 0,1,2 and this is in proxy smooth so it can be exported into any renderer unlike their proprietary subD format, which I think is looking more and more like a mistake in hindsight.) And auto-propagating topology changes to all your blendshapes, so you can edit the model without messing up compatibility with your target shapes, that looks like a real time saver.

Also, the animation controls include a "paint shape weights" feature to interactively take just the parts you want from different blendshapes, then add what you've made as a new blendshape with a new slider. The full-body IK, IK/FG integration, and direct support for ground planes that feet won't cut through looks like a big step up from what was built-in to Maya as well.

-jeremy

[sacslacker]

These updates "sound" awesome. I can't wrap my mind around what the toon shader actually does so I'm hoping to see some videos of it in action. I'm really excited about this update for sure.

[silent_soul]

Sounds like a great upgrade and might actually sway me from buying Luxology's Modo. I was getting quite annoyed with the lack of tools for an efficient subD modeling workflow. Rock 'on with the new Mental Ray integration as well... can't wait!!

[dagon1978]

:thumbsup:
http://www.deathfall.com/article.php?sid=5596

[madmanmagic]

I'm am SO glad I never bought Maya 6 or 6.5 (I stuck with 5). yay!

Now I just need to wait for it show up on JourneyED. :)

-eric

Anyone know what the normal hang time is between full release and JourneyED release.

Anyone track this the last time round?
thanks
Dan

[CaptainSam]

What in heavens name are they up to at Alias? Did they just forget to update the web page before the whole gang went to Siggraph or something? Or did they just get depressed about Softimage stealing all their thunder by having a more impressive upgrade?

[Dirtystimpy]

"Pick Walk On Polygon Vertices "


me likey

[beaker]

They said Maya 7 would be availible for download for platinum members, so they are probably going to update the page at the same time they put maya 7 for download.

[jfrancis]

Some impressions on Maya 7 from the AGUA presentation:

http://www.digitalartform.com/archives/2005/07/maya_7.html

[bmcaff]

They said Maya 7 would be availible for download for platinum members, so they are probably going to update the page at the same time they put maya 7 for download.

I'm hoping 7 will finally fix the dongle issue on my AMD x64

[Zeicon]

I am very excited about the toon shader!

I also like all the small improvements such as
- polygon pick-walking according to the object's allignment in the viewport
- show manipulator snapping and polygon face snapping

[jramsay]

Folks - regarding the delay in updating the website - we apologize. We had some really bad timing with a web server blowing and it's a public holiday in Toronto today, so getting it fixed is taking longer than it normally would.

You folks are very much free to discuss what you saw at AGUA last night.

Happy Maya 7,

Jill

[Iconoklast]

Would it be safe to say the update of the webpage would be sometime today, hopefully?

[depleteD]

Man these updates are craaaaazy, maya and xsi really really left max in the dust.
I really dont think that auto desk has any employees for max nemore, like maya and xsi now are like whoa

[jramsay]

Would it be safe to say the update of the webpage would be sometime today, hopefully?

We certainly hope so. We have people onsite working on it now. Stay tuned! :-)

Jill

[elvis75k]

Folks - regarding the delay in updating the website - we apologize. We had some really bad timing with a web server blowing and it's a public holiday in Toronto today, so getting it fixed is taking longer than it normally would.

You folks are very much free to discuss what you saw at AGUA last night.

Happy Maya 7,

Jill


BBBOOOOOMMMM : there is finally.. wow mates.. i stole a little bit of internet connection here in my girlfriend's house.. I can't miss the update!! But.. she is coming..

[victor]

Any Renderman for Maya news today?

[lovisx]

Move Tool Symmetry in maya 7

is this what I think it is?

[Pixlmonky]

How much did they update the renderlayers? The feature I am looking for is the ability to render once and seperate out the layers, instead of render once for shadow, once for spec, once for diffuse. Such a time waste. Would be nice to be able to easily render other stuff like reflections and AO and other stuff. I know you can do it now with a few steps, but when you are render wrangling, the ease of simple setup makes all the difference. I'd like it to all be in one panel.


BTW....Thanks for all the updates.

Also.....Someone go to the BLUR party for me so I can live vicariously thru you (you get your ticket yet Beaker? Last year was a blast!!!)

[elvis75k]

Hope it's safe to post.. otherwise please delete me.. some info on avaiability and price of both
MAYA7 and MotionBuilder7

http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/08/01/alias/index.php

-elvis

[macmayaguy]

Along with multi-pass rendering have they added a simple render queue yet? Almost every 3D app I've ever seen or heard of had a simple way to load a series of scenes and have the computer render one after the other. Like your Comps in After Effects. Anyone know if they've added something like this?

[BillSpradlin]

You can do that with MEL and/or a custom sollution quite easily.

[beaker]

Render -s sw scene1.mb
Render -s sw scene2.mb
Render -s sw scene3.mb

put that in a text editor and execute it.

[Zeicon]

Move Tool Symmetry in maya 7

is this what I think it is?

"As of Maya 7, artists can use the move tool to affect components on both sides of an object symmetrically – enabling them to make adjustments to a symmetrical model while maintaining symmetry."


If you're familiar with Lightwave's 'Symmetry' function, you should have a pretty good idea of what this is.

[ThomasMahler]

Move Tool Symmetry in maya 7

is this what I think it is?

I think it's just what the name implies: You can Mirror the move actions over to the opposite side of your model. If Maya finds a component at the exact opposite values, it'll work okay, if not, it won't.

I don't think we're talking about a Wings like Virtual Mirror here - Sadly.

[madmanmagic]

Does anyone have a guess if they will offer an Upgrade Unlimited 5 to 7 at a discount of any sort?

Thanks
Dan

[sacslacker]

Wow, no update on the Alias site. I know I'm a super nerd that keeps checking every 10 minutes but I'd like to see something today. Examples of these crazy new features would be nice to drive the hype train I'm on.

[macmayaguy]

Render -s sw scene1.mb
Render -s sw scene2.mb
Render -s sw scene3.mb

put that in a text editor and execute it.

I'll give that a shot, but there should still be some way to do this built into the program for something so simple.

Thanks for the advice, now i gotta start scraping my nickels and dimes together :thumbsup:

[BillSpradlin]

MEL isn't any more "built" in than you can get =)

[ThomasMahler]

That's the Alias philosophy, buddy.

"We make it somehow possible! ...and you do the rest!"

Sorry to hear about the server-crash or whatever - Hope you guys are up with videos soon enough, I'd love to see some of the new features in action!

[macmayaguy]

That's the Alias philosophy, buddy.

"We make it somehow possible! ...and you do the rest!"

Sorry to hear about the server-crash or whatever - Hope you guys are up with videos soon enough, I'd love to see some of the new features in action!


You don't know how funny it is that you said that. Whenever people ask me "how I like Maya" that's almost exactly what I tell them.

Don't get me wrong, i'm stoked about this upgrade! Everyone's got that ONE feature they've been begging for or took for granted in another package that they want to see included. That's mine. Got a SLOW computer and render at night a lot.

Thanks for the input though, i'll try it tonight

:thumbsup:

[hominid]

But did they fix the "Bevel"?

Pete

[lovisx]

haven't had a chance to use lightwave unfortunatly but the mirror move tool will help alot where I work from what I hear.

[rblitz7]

When does Maya 7 come out on JorneyED.com

[maelstrom]

substitute geometry on skinned characters, topology independent blend shapes, full body IK, Spring IK Solver ...mmmmh :applause:

some of the most annoying limitations in a creature pipeline fixed, nice new additions - this looks like a big one - I'm sold!

[CaptainSam]

Funny, it used to say that the joint stiffness algorithm uses a spring based system and is really difficult to control and will be fixed in a future version of Maya and blah blah blah, in the release notes for Maya 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 4.5 and 5. Then in 6 and 6.5 that line was removed. Looks like they finally fixed it, after 10 releases, with the spring solver.

Still no news on quaternions that can actually be used to animate with though. The quaternions that absolutely dont work and never will have been around since m4 now.

[ReBootedOne]

I'm not much of a rigger.... What does full body ik actually allow? Examples?
So excited for this release. :D

-eric

[Jozvex]

I'm not much of a rigger.... What does full body ik actually allow? Examples?
So excited for this release. :D

-eric

It means that for example, if you pull on the character's hand IK, past where the hand can reach, the shoulders then spine then legs will all move too, in order for the hand to reach the IK. It's a bit hard to explain but it's good!

I can't wait for this version 7 update! Sounds great to me!

[ReBootedOne]

Ohhhh, so it's like the Animation Master skeletal system.....

Sweet!

:bounce:

-eric

[rock]

These 3 Learning Maya 7 books (Foundation, Special Effects Handbook, and Modeling and Animation Handbook) look very good.

http://www.alias.com/glb/eng/products-services/learning_tools.jsp

Full Maya 7 feature list is here, posted by Bujji:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=263678

[gundog]

But did they fix the "Bevel"?

Pete

magic eightball says "not a chance".

[leigh]

Now to try and convince the powers-that-be at work to get this update for us.... :D

[nubian]

if it hasn't been mentioned already i'm just hoping the image plane grid issue was fixed too.
it worked fine in 6.0 and i believe 0.1 but doesn't not work in 6.5.

[NUKE-CG]

I guess Alias have gone to sleep.

Tomorrow morning maybe some videos and PDFs... :)

[sacslacker]

Yeah... at least it better be tomorrow. I'm pretty disappointed with them not having released anything but a press release at this point.

[elvis75k]

whoaa.. i wake up early this morning .. jump off the bed. now it's 8:20 am, now in front of my monitor with coffee on my hand, no pee, no cac.. and 2 big black circles around my eyes.. Alias WAHT IS THIS ????? No info, no pdfs, no platinum - anything.. Are you ready for this 2nd step?

[ThomasMahler]

But did they fix the "Bevel"?

Pete

Was that a running gag or were you serious about that? ;)

[Iconoklast]

I woke up monday morning all excited about seeing information..
I woke up today all excited about seeing information..

I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE.

[elvis75k]

Maybe we have to say the magic word.. What is the magic word?

Vote:

1 please

2 c'mon

3 supercalifragilistikespiralidocious

4 i wont the goblin take you away from here.. right now

5 umpa-dumpa

[Bonedaddy]

They're having server issues. Not much they can do about it, especially when half their company is down in LA. Patience. ;)

[Buexe]

How is one supposed to be patient with this feature list??? :love:
I really don`t care for toon shading, but I want to see this Full Boody IK in Action!
Now!:bounce:

[thematt]

I really don`t care for toon shading, but I want to see this Full Boody IK in Action!
Now



hey wait..I care for toon shading...but I care for full body Ik too!! damn it..:)

cheers

[Iconoklast]

I'm interested to see how the subdivision surface sculpting works!

Sculpting for Subdivision Surfaces
The Artisan Sculpting tool has been extended to work on subdivision surfaces. Previously it worked only on NURBS surfaces and polygon meshes.

[Blur1]

I'm interested to see how the subdivision surface sculpting works!

Sculpting for Subdivision Surfaces
The Artisan Sculpting tool has been extended to work on subdivision surfaces. Previously it worked only on NURBS surfaces and polygon meshes.

Does anyone actually use subD's in Maya, and if so, when? Do any of the announced Maya 7 features change anything regarding preference for a poly proxy or subD workflow?
Ideally I guess I would model in Silo or something then convert to subD's in Maya and use whatever tools were available but I don't see huge benefits from using subD's over poly proxy or rendertime subD's.

Genuinely curious.

[Iconoklast]

that's why I want to see how it's been implemented, to see if it would give more workflow enhancements.

As far as using subd's. I only use them to tweak vertices, since it's much faster to tweak the subd mesh components, than it is to tweak the polygon proxy components.

[Buexe]

On the german alias site they mention something about

Variable Creasing for Smooth Proxy

Now, that could be a real burner in my eyes :eek:
I never use subd`s and always thought that this ( hopefully edge ) controlled smoothing would be very helpful for detailing models.

[beaker]

Yea, they showed that off at Agua. Alias licensed Pixar's patent on semi sharp creases on Subdivs. It's sorta like the the MTOR subdivs which is a 10 point slider from sharp to smooth.

[LichiMan]

But the Pixar's creases works on subds and the Alias one only works on Smooth Proxy, doesn't it?

[]-UnderTOW-[]

But the Pixar's creases works on subds and the Alias one only works on Smooth Proxy, doesn't it?

Huzzah to that!

[yinako]

I like the new Maya cover art(the girl made with paint effects), its not the same old red stuff. Who produced it?

[Jozvex]

My guess would be Mega Maya Master Meats Meier?

[morimitsu]

:bounce: Holy Cow!
I have been waiting for this Render Layers and Render Layers to PSD for a long Time!
Wow the ability to output directly to psd numbered files and be able to open it in a comp (AE) is really a great time saver!

[jramsay]

My guess would be Mega Maya Master Meats Meier?

You guess right!

Jill

[jramsay]

They're having server issues. Not much they can do about it, especially when half their company is down in LA. Patience. ;)

Folks - really sorry. We are still working on it flat out. Major hardware failure. It'll be worth the wait though.

:-)

Jill

[Jozvex]

His style is great and I'm glad he did the new Maya artwork.

So....yeah!

[Vinc]

To the alias guys....
is this too much to ask for an estimation time for a recovery alias server with the demonstrating stuff everybody waiting for???????
I'm currenly waiting by reading XSI forum :argh:
You f***ed up your maya 7 launch you know that?????
I see real lack of professionalim here, hopping it was not from you!
May be you should think to change the support company of your web server stuff. They bring you in trouble here.
best regard and great hope..
Vinc

[ThomasMahler]

To the alias guys....
is this too much to ask for an estimation time for a recovery alias server with the demonstrating stuff everybody waiting for???????
I'm currenly waiting by reading XSI forum :argh:
You f***ed up your maya 7 launch you know that?????
I see real lack of professionalim here, hopping it was not from you!
May be you should think to change the support company of your web server stuff. They bring you in trouble here.
best regard and great hope..
Vinc

Gee, you're tense. Cool down, buddy. A server crash could happen to anybody - We already know what Maya 7 will bring us, the server update will come soon enough. So, hold your horses, man...

[doodlyD]

im simply cant wait no more =))
Alias u are ruining my nervous system! it cant be recreated!!

[elvis75k]

Let's get busy... Give peace a chance.

[Br1]

To the alias guys....
is this too much to ask for an estimation time for a recovery alias server with the demonstrating stuff everybody waiting for???????
I'm currenly waiting by reading XSI forum :argh:
You f***ed up your maya 7 launch you know that?????
I see real lack of professionalim here, hopping it was not from you!
May be you should think to change the support company of your web server stuff. They bring you in trouble here.
best regard and great hope..
Vinc

Vinc, you got a post from Jill Ramsay (alias) just 13 minutes before yours, explaining their situation... I guess you're really exited and expecting version 7, so are other people :) , but come on you waited many months now, what can a few more hours or even days do.. ?

[Vinc]

Gee, you're tense. Cool down, buddy. A server crash could happen to anybody - We already know what Maya 7 will bring us, the server update will come soon enough. So, hold your horses, man...

tense?? we can say that yes..... But in such a intensive annoncement date.... 48 hours and more to bring a server up is just ridiculous (from the support company that is paided for that.... not for alias itself I meen).
now if i don't feel i'm cool enought.... it's just than I'm like a kid that wait for his canddies.... :hmm:
urry up alias.... waiting make me nervous ;)
Vinc

[NUKE-CG]

You should calm down, Vinc.

Computers crash all the time, and Alias are trying their best I'm sure. So just be patient.

Their servers will eventually have to allow hundreds of 150MB downloads of Maya 7, thousands of Quicktime streams, and gigabytes of page loads and PDF document downloads.

[Vinc]

Vinc, you got a post from Jill Ramsay (alias) just 13 minutes before yours, explaining their situation... I guess you're really exited and expecting version 7, so are other people :) , but come on you waited many months now, what can a few more hours or even days do.. ?
yes I see.... my english writing is really really slow.... my fault :wip:
vinc

[elvis75k]

Their servers will eventually have to allow hundreds of 150MB downloads of Maya 7, thousands of Quicktime streams, and gigabytes of page loads and PDF document downloads.

amen!

CGTALK handeled 14,340 views for this thread in 2 days.. (and i never see the typo server is too busy...)

-elvis

[morimitsu]

I must say I´m very excited about Maya 7. I woke up and one of the first things I do is to check this news section. I´m sure the wait will be worth! Keep cool guys!

Cheers!:bounce:

[mattwood]

You guys aware that there are Maya 7 movies up now at Alias.com? You've got to dig a little...

happy hunting...

[dagon1978]

it's working :thumbsup:

[cpan]

yahoooo it's working!!! I thought i'll die until alias's site it's back :)

hmmm strange... why did alias's site got down exaclty when maya 7 was released:argh: maybe autodesk or soft were pissed :)))

[beau]

I noticed there's Maya 7 Japanese. Anyone know if all the interface is in Japanese or just the help documentation?

Thanks,
beau_cg

[swag]

here some vids
http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services/maya/new/demos.shtml;jsessionid=AAVQ1PS5UTACVQCLCWSSM44AJMK0IJVC

[elvis75k]

FIXED!!|! WHHOOOAA

[jramsay]

Thanks for your patience guys - as you've seen we're back up and running. Enjoy.

Jill

[Tobbe]

Monster update! "What's new" doc.... 576 pages... :eek:

[Koogle]

w00t thanks for the heads up... so glad my isp got my internet connection back up :p

[Morph21]

Hey Tobbe where ist this 576 page doc, is it online or come it with the update...cause i dont find it :sad:

[MunCHeR]

Monster update! "What's new" doc.... 576 pages... :eek:

tobbe, all I can find is the 2 page pdf, got a url for that document?

Cheers

MunCH

[Vinc]

YYYYYYYYPPPPYYYYYY it's here..... it's here...... :applause: :bounce:
much happy I am :thumbsup:
Vinc

[elvis75k]

I'm dead .. after see the toon option in action..

[benwatt]

All downloaded, I'm off home to try it out :D

[fro0ty]

I'm dead .. after see the toon option in action..can we have some screenshots, pllllleeese???

I'll have to wait a long time before I can get my hands on it, University should be upgrading to Maya 7 over the summer holidays :D

[ThomasMahler]

Okay, so:

The blendShape stuff looks very nice, I wouldn't have thought that Maya changes all the blendShapes according to the new topology of the base mesh, I would have guess that it worked the other way around (that Maya just interpolates the weights for the new verts on the base mesh), but if this one really works out, I'm happy. I'm a little sceptical about that, to be honest - I have the feeling that it could mess up the blendShapes in certain cases, but we'll see.

The full Body IK is exactly what I'd have expected. Nice one.

The render layers stuff looks totally sweet - I'm sure a LOT of people will be very, very happy about that one!

I'm also waiting for first reviews about the substitute geometry feature - Looks very Mirai'ish. I'm not sure that Maya will really do a good job when you're going to extremes, rigging a lowPoly Version of your character and later on substitute the geometry with the highPoly version, but I'm eager to try this one out. Could be a _real_ timesaver.

And the toonShader looks cool. I won't really use it, but it definitely looks well thought out. Question is, does it render all this stuff in Mental Ray, Turtle, etc? I guess so, since it's all geometry, but since it's based on PaintEffects, I'm not sure about that one.

Definitely a nice update, good job Alias!

[cpan]

Question is, does it render all this stuff in Mental Ray, Turtle, etc?

yeap they say there that mentalray can render toon shading:thumbsup:


Because Paint Effects brushes can be used on an outline, you can gain access to an extensive range of painterly effects, plus, they have extensive control over line style, placement and width - and get the benefit of near real-time interactive previews. Results can be rendered in mental ray for Maya or the software or hardware renderer in Maya.

maybe PFX are now renderable with mray directly?

[NUKE-CG]

Wham Bamm! So many additions to an already huge toolset. And these additions are big within themselves.

The Toon module looks like it has more control than you could shake a shit at. Rendering Layers is terrific. Non-destructive blends, full body IK. General polygon tools from edge-loop tools, UV tools, vector to polygon generation, symmetry, snapping, new primitives, and the Renderman compliant creasing is perfect for those of us that will try out Renderman For Maya later this month.

Now people can understand why 6.5 was a performance/refine release. Much easier for Alias to build on top of Maya now.

[sacslacker]

Yes this is a very nice update. Some pretty slick stuff. Downloaded.... not installed yet. Tonight baby!

[cpan]

The Toon module looks like it has more control than you could shake a shit at. Rendering Layers is terrific. Non-destructive blends, full body IK. General polygon tools from edge-loop tools, UV tools, vector to polygon generation, symmetry, snapping, new primitives, and the Renderman compliant creasing is perfect for those of us that will try out Renderman For Maya later this month.

and the Smooth Proxy creasing works also with mentalray, software, vector & hardware renderer :thumbsup:

PS. wow that Compas it's really nice... i like the new way to change cameras a lot! :)

[dotTom]

Argh, the suspense is killing me. When is Alias going to post a US English version of Maya 7 for Platinum folks to download. Does anyone know?

[Goon]

Whats rigging with full body IK going to be like? The videos seemed to indicate that Maya were using the same pre-built rigs as MB, so will we not be able to create our own?

[benwatt]

Argh, the suspense is killing me. When is Alias going to post a US English version of Maya 7 for Platinum folks to download. Does anyone know?

They have. Or at least they did - the link seems to have disappeared in the last hour.

[dotTom]

They have. Or at least they did - the link seems to have disappeared in the last hour.

Why? Server traffic or they've discovered a lurking critical issue in the release? Is there anyone from Alias around here who'd care to comment! I have Platinum and curses, but I was traveling home when you folks posted! :bounce:

[benwatt]

Why? Server traffic or they've discovered a lurking critical issue in the release? Is there anyone from Alias around here who'd care to comment! I have Platinum and curses, but I was traveling home when you folks posted! :bounce:

It's back again.

[dotTom]

It's back again.

Star! Thanks dude, downloading now, circa 170K per sec, ETA 28 minutes to Maya 7 Heaven :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Zeicon]

Wow, the Toon Shader looks UNBELIEVABLE!

[Buexe]

Oh my geee! I just saw the bake topology to blendshapes video, is this a hot feature or what? And is this exchange skinned meshes something similar to what XSI features with GATOR?

[Koogle]

Really good to see all the updates, seems like there is a much needed update in there for everyone.. right now the File referencing updates and the Layers update including having it in a seperate window have caught my eye.. Ohh and the bevel Text.. lol finally able to make changes to a texts font..at last :)

[nubian]

where are the docs?

[chadtheartist]

I've waited almost three years for better toon controls... I'm definitely upgrading!

[sacslacker]

where are the docs?

I pulled the docs down from the same page you download v7 at. In the platinum area of support.

[bjoern]

daaaaaam
2 Years ago this Renderlayer would't be great.
now it's old technic!
integrated renderbuffer is what I want...

[sacslacker]

daaaaaam
2 Years ago this Renderlayer would't be great.
now it's old technic!
integrated renderbuffer is what I want...

Uh, have you used it yet or read the docs? It's a damn nice addition.

[dotTom]

Anyone else having grief downloading the "win32_webkey70.exe"? I have 7 down and installed now and need this to upgrade my 6.5 key. The Alias FTP site appears to be having trouble.

Update: No worries, Alias support came through and emailed me an upgraded aw.dat for Maya 7, I'm in CG heaven :)

[Goon]

daaaaaam
2 Years ago this Renderlayer would't be great.
now it's old technic!
integrated renderbuffer is what I want...

MR 3.4 incorporates unlimited render buffers, 3.3 was limited to 8. The docs say that these buffers can be accessed through shaders, as has already been done by Ctrl_Studio. So all we need is an update on that shader, and it'll be all good.

[shingo]

Buffers are a wonderful new addition and saves a lot of memory, but there are things layers can do that would be difficult with buffers.

daaaaaam
2 Years ago this Renderlayer would't be great.
now it's old technic!
integrated renderbuffer is what I want...

[kapollo]

Hi,
which version is the mental ray ??

[doodlyD]

demo Full IK
cant view at the end of a clip!!!
only me ?

[wigal]

what about this selection menue which is used all the time in the videos... is that new to version 7 or did I miss something i the previous version????

[kemijo]

what about this selection menue which is used all the time in the videos... is that new to version 7 or did I miss something i the previous version????

That's been in for awhile; put a check beside "Popup Menu Selection" under Preferences -> Selection. Mainly for selecting a single object of many overlapping objects.

[MSB]

what about this selection menue which is used all the time in the videos... is that new to version 7 or did I miss something i the previous version????

its an upgrade to " press o and LMB " that Marking menu.
anyway if you got maya 7 you will customiz it...mostly when you do marking menu you don't wont to dive into hierachy....

maya 7 rocks :thumbsup:

hope they modified mr docs...

[morimitsu]

Now there´s a huge advantage to become a silver membership!

Free DVD downloads! Cool!

http://www.alias.com/glb/eng/community/downloadable_dvds.jsp

[Balusilustalu]

Or to put it another way: a crutch to aid maya's horrendously inaccurate point and click selection methods. ;)

That's been in for awhile; put a check beside "Popup Menu Selection" under Preferences -> Selection. Mainly for selecting a single object of many overlapping objects.

[morimitsu]

Maya 7 is awesome!

Broadcast users like me will love:
-use curves or import .ai files and update bevel automatically!
-render layers and output to numbered psd files and import it directly in AE!!!
This is all I was asking for a couple of months ago. Better integration with photoshop, illustrator and AE!!!

[Iconoklast]

double clicking edge loops is nice, and duplicating the selected edge loop (adds edge loops to both sides of your selected edge loop) is even nicer.

[Iconoklast]

oh, and the new edge loop split tool? awesome. You can click an edge on one side of the loop, click another edge, and it'll loop split between those edges.

[Jozvex]

I'm truely amazed. I'm only about a third of the way through reading the mega-pdf, and there's just so much new stuff that it's crazy. I'm pleasantly surprised by the littler things like 6 new polygon primitives (prism, pyramid, pipe, soccer ball, helix and platonic solids). Now we just need capsules (*hint hint* hehe) and it'd be the full set.

Plus weird features like Texture to Geometry could have interesting uses.

[nubian]

I'm truely amazed. I'm only about a third of the way through reading the mega-pdf, and there's just so much new stuff that it's crazy. I'm pleasantly surprised by the littler things like 6 new polygon primitives (prism, pyramid, pipe, soccer ball, helix and platonic solids). Now we just need capsules (*hint hint* hehe) and it'd be the full set.

Plus weird features like Texture to Geometry could have interesting uses.

link to pdf?
pelase

[Jozvex]

For some reason it's only in the platinum members area and you need to login to get it. Seems a bit strange to me but I guess it's not officially out for non-platinum people yet. :shrug:

I don't mind answering questions though. Some other cool stuff is that in the timeline you can now change the width of keyframe ticks and change keyframe tick colours for different keys.

There are also a surprising number of new manipulator gizmos for different things like the dopesheet, transforming objects and components etc.

[nubian]

sigh! :(
thanks anway

[beaker]

I'm also waiting for first reviews about the substitute geometry feature - Looks very Mirai'ish. I'm not sure that Maya will really do a good job when you're going to extremes, rigging a lowPoly Version of your character and later on substitute the geometry with the highPoly version, but I'm eager to try this one out. Could be a _real_ timesaver.Sad to say, this feature has been in maya since version 1. They just made it a one step process now. Previously it was more convoluded to do(check out killer maya tips book).

[mttjss]

Pick Walk on Polygon Vertices :buttrock: :buttrock:

[cpan]

Sad to say, this feature has been in maya since version 1. They just made it a one step process now. Previously it was more convoluded to do(check out killer maya tips book).

yeah as anyone knows... everything it's somehow possible in maya... with a lot of brain twisting anything is possible :)... even in MS Paint u can do anything related to 2D :))

[ThomasMahler]

Sad to say, this feature has been in maya since version 1. They just made it a one step process now. Previously it was more convoluded to do(check out killer maya tips book).

Really? I don't know how I'd swap the weights from a lowPoly Model to a highPoly Model that has a completely different pointOrder.

And even if it was possible - The question is how practical it's actually been. I don't know anyone who substitutes geometry or "swaps weights", but I'm also not much into Rigging and Skinning. It'd be cool if you could sum up real quick how this could be done in Maya 6.0, for example!

[swag]

thomas ... there are some scripts with weight interpolation on highend

[NUKE-CG]

Jill,

Can Alias comment yet on the upgrade pricing of a possible 7.0 x64 build?

I would figure the money "lost" by offering a free license switch when the time comes, would be small compared to the increased sales by users which would feel more future-proof to upgrade to 7.0 now.

[thematt]

hehe..did you know taht face robot will also be available for MAya..isn't that a cool news..:)

All the buzz around taht on the Xsi thread, and we'll got it too..pretty cool

http://www.softimage.com/Products/f...cerobot_faq.pdf

cheers

[akaiwa]

hehe..did you know taht face robot will also be available for MAya..isn't that a cool news..:)

All the buzz around taht on the Xsi thread, and we'll got it too..pretty cool

http://www.softimage.com/Products/f...cerobot_faq.pdf

cheers

The link has changed ( here it is (http://www.softimage.com/Products/face_robot/pdfs/softimage_facerobot_faq.pdf) )

That's awesome. That thing looked really cool, and Maya users can get it also...
I completly forgot about the new primitives until someone just mentioned it! I'm look forward to those, for sure.

A quick question though.... is there every (either from Alias or 3rd party) going to be a tool like 3ds Max's way of making primitives, where you drag out their basic shape first, instead of creating a single primitive in 0,0,0 like Maya does? That's the only feature I liked of Max, and it was a huge timesaver for me.

[KidderD]

Jill,

Can Alias comment yet on the upgrade pricing of a possible 7.0 x64 build?

I would figure the money "lost" by offering a free license switch when the time comes, would be small compared to the increased sales by users which would feel more future-proof to upgrade to 7.0 now.

Yes, I think although XSI won the 64 bit race, is seems at the expense of not really adding many feeatures to the 5.0. Although a lot of it seems to be memory management stuff under the hood. Anyway, this isn't about XSI, except that moving around millions, and rendering billions of polygons in XSI is freakin' incredible! Where is Maya x64???

I would like to say that Alias, (a canadian company, patriot first) really did an an amazing job with 7.0 with listening to ... well they listened to someone, not sure who it was, but keep it up! Oh, and Duncan should get a nice long vacation, rest that big brain of his before he invents the next big thing in CG, don't want that thing overheating!!

[lovisx]

xsi is Canadian, where's the partriotism for them? Hey!?

[shingo]

I think that you really are speaking from a point of ignorance.

For a start, the new features movies for XSI seem a lot more comprehensive than those on the Alias site, but that is noT a measure of anything. Don't be fooled. What gets listed as NEW features at press release time isn't all there is. It's like saying that the half a dozen flash movies on the Alias weB site is all that's in Maya 7, when that is clearly not the case.

The new features guide to Maya 7 is hundreds of pages long, so is XSI's. For example, Maya has made more noise abotu G buffer rendering in Mental Ray, but it's also in XSI, and dare I say, more elegantly done seeing as there are buffers available for each pass or layer.

Also, don't forget that Sofitmage came out with not one, but two apps this year. XSI 5 and Face Robot.

Yes, I think although XSI won the 64 bit race, is seems at the expense of not really adding many feeatures to the 5.0. Although a lot of it seems to be memory management stuff under the hood. Anyway, this isn't about XSI, except that moving around millions, and rendering billions of polygons in XSI is freakin' incredible! Where is Maya x64???

I would like to say that Alias, (a canadian company, patriot first) really did an an amazing job with 7.0 with listening to ... well they listened to someone, not sure who it was, but keep it up! Oh, and Duncan should get a nice long vacation, rest that big brain of his before he invents the next big thing in CG, don't want that thing overheating!!

[KidderD]

Shingo,

I've spoken out of ignorance before so you might be right, of course I would only know the marketing end of it, so yeah I'm ignorant about XSI, not really my point exactly, in fact I was praising the 64 bit stride of XSI vs Maya, It's quite a title match at this point. Also, I beleive that FaceRobot was seemingly developed on XSI, but not by XSI, just saying that since it is to be available in several app flavors. I'm sure if it was XSI, you wouldn't see that happening.

Nuke CG

Hope I haven't hijacked your 64 thread, I really would like to know as well.

Can Alias comment on a x64 Maya?

[shingo]

No sweat Kidder,

Face Robot was developed by Softimage Special Projects with the help of specialists in the field of facial movement. it was originally requested by Blur Studios.

Not sure how it will support MAX and Maya since it works on the XSI core, but I'm sure they figured out a way. As for the title fight, the undisputed heavy eight champion remains Maya no doubt, but it's refreshing to see a little competition comming from the rookie. ;-)

Shingo,

I've spoken out of ignorance before so you might be right, of course I would only know the marketing end of it, so yeah I'm ignorant about XSI, not really my point exactly, in fact I was praising the 64 bit stride of XSI vs Maya, It's quite a title match at this point. Also, I beleive that FaceRobot was seemingly developed on XSI, but not by XSI, just saying that since it is to be available in several app flavors. I'm sure if it was XSI, you wouldn't see that happening.

Nuke CG

Hope I haven't hijacked your 64 thread, I really would like to know as well.

Can Alias comment on a x64 Maya?

[BillSpradlin]

At the Agua meeting Sunday they demo'd it for about 2 minutes. Since Jill already stated we could discuss things shown at Agua I'll comment on the brief demo. Currently it's in Alpha at "several major studios" and currently there is no timeframe when it will be released. The presenter demonstrated painting the entire screen full of PaintFX and still had a pretty responsive frame rate while tumbling around the viewport. That was pretty much all they disclosed.

[beaker]

Really? I don't know how I'd swap the weights from a lowPoly Model to a highPoly Model that has a completely different pointOrder.

And even if it was possible - The question is how practical it's actually been. I don't know anyone who substitutes geometry or "swaps weights", but I'm also not much into Rigging and Skinning. It'd be cool if you could sum up real quick how this could be done in Maya 6.0, for example!As someone else mentioned there are scripts to do this. You can do a "Transfer Weights", which spacially transfers soft bind weights between models. Another option is swapping out the "intermediate object" that is in the bind which is like a reference version of model that is hidden(you can see it in the hypergraph, or you can turn it on in the soft bind's attrib editor).

[NUKE-CG]

Both programs rock. The end. :)

Now, the 64-bit issues.

As much as it was a race, it was more who wanted to gamble. Microsoft shifting the Windows64 release day many times made software companies unclear of their resource management to step up for 64-bit computing. All about timing in the end, Alias didn't want to risk making a 7.0 64-bit application if MS were going to delay again. Softimage could have easily released a redundant build if schedules changed once more.

It's easy in hindsight, so I'm not put off with Alias not pioneering this step in 3D evolution. This stuff takes time, even if a lot of Maya is txt based MEL, the executables contain millions of lines of code to be altered and tested.

[shingo]

I think the 64 bit thing is still in it's early days. Perhaps for the odd crazy scene it will be utlised, but the fact is that there is a lot of damn good 32 bit hardware still in use and peopl aren't goign to upgrade it all in a hurry.

I will be ineterested to see how 64 translates to applications for smualtion. 64 bit fluids for example - the mind boggles.

Rather sad to see that Autodesk are talking about a version of MAX that will run on 64 bit windows but isn't 64 bit as such. I can only imagine the confusion that is creating.

Both programs rock. The end. :)

Now, the 64-bit issues.

It's easy in hindsight, so I'm not put off with Alias not pioneering this step in 3D evolution. This stuff takes time, even if a lot of Maya is txt based MEL, the executables contain millions of lines of code to be altered and tested.

[Iconoklast]

About XSI releasing two apps in one year, that's all said and done, but if you look at some of the stuff in XSI. The hair? shave and a haircut, the dynamics? that Novadex engine, the cloth sim, syflex.
They're not really implementing their own programming here. Although I think what they're doing is very cool, and the implementation of those 3rd party apps is really nice to XSI, and if they want to do that, that's great. XSI is a wonderful app, I must admit..
But Alias has developed most of it's own dynamic related stuff though.. (which may or may not be as updated as people would like!)

[Bonedaddy]

They were showing a bit of fluids on 64-bit Maya, before the paint effects demo. Basically, pretty high-resolution fluids running in realtime, as they messed with parameters. Pretty cool stuff. Definitely makes fluids more useable.

[shingo]

Yeah I totally agree.

There's good and bad in both approaches, but hats off to Alias for their scientific innovation in that regard. I do think this worked against Alias however, for the releases of Maya prior to Mental Ray integration.

Come to think of it though, the particles in Maya were the child of Dynamation were they not? The native renderer from the TDI days. and now of course, the full body IK rig from Kaydara.

So at the end of the day, it's fair to say there is not a lot new under he sun.

About XSI releasing two apps in one year, that's all said and done, but if you look at some of the stuff in XSI. The hair? shave and a haircut, the dynamics? that Novadex engine, the cloth sim, syflex.
They're not really implementing their own programming here. Although I think what they're doing is very cool, and the implementation of those 3rd party apps is really nice to XSI, and if they want to do that, that's great. XSI is a wonderful app, I must admit..
But Alias has developed most of it's own dynamic related stuff though.. (which may or may not be as updated as people would like!)

[SFG]

So can one upgrade from 6.5 education version?

[gent_k]

Well, about XSI5 not being as strong of a release, that is of course subjective.

I actually expected Maya to turn out a solid release this time around after the 6.0 and 6.5, which were significantly smaller releases, at least from the reaction of users (btw, nice to see render passes throwed in). On the other hand after XSI 4(which was a huge release IMO), I didn't even expect half of the updates in XSI 5, and was of course pleasantly surprised.

About XSI incorporating third party stuff, I guess its a matter of priorities. I personally am really glad they incorporated Syflex in the previous release, and now Novodex Dynamics which are both mighty impressive. When they do this its nice to know they take in the best of the best, and maintain interactivity as the rest of the XSI features. And I think the time they've spent on improving what they call non-destructive workflow is really worth it IMO. I was really impressed with the incredible work on memory management while rendering, and even more by Gator, that was extremely impressive. And there are improvements in there that basically cover almost every major Gripe users have had with XSI. When considering the modelling improvements (a little selfish here) and other productivity enhancing tools too I think its a really solid app.
Of course knowing they have an upgrade path for FaceRobot for exsisting users and that it didn't apparently run externally(in their Siggraph presentation) like SI|Behaviour is a plus too :scream:.

There will always of course be comparisons of updates, as many 3dapp users feel the need to assure themselves that their update is better ;-).

The main thing is that both XSI and Maya users seem to be extremely happy with the new releases. Max users are kind of divided, but alot of people happy on that side too. And thats all that counts really.
I mean if that wasn't the case there'd be alot of bitching going on right now ;-).

(damn thats a long post, sorry)

[pixelAffairs]

The main thing is that both XSI and Maya users seem to be extremely happy with the new releases


Very cool to see that there were about no app wars going on in the threads this time.
Everybody just sits smiling in front of his ´puter, looking forward to play around with new stuff.

XSI looks finally looks hot after 5 Releases-no doubt.
But i think switching the app makes no sense, neither for trained xsi- users, nor for trained Maya- users.
To me, knowing my software is much more important than this or that feature.
But Face Robot made me think ;-)

Cheers

[shingo]

Yes I agree. It does make a pleasnt change to have an atmosphere of mutla appreciation. I suspect this is partly due to the strenght of the releaes and XSI users not feeling like the ugly half brother of the 3D world for the first time in a while. ;-)

Similarly, I agree that the case for one app versus another is becomming thinner all the time.

Very cool to see that there were about no app wars going on in the threads this time.
Everybody just sits smiling in front of his ´puter, looking forward to play around with new stuff.

XSI looks finally looks hot after 5 Releases-no doubt.
But i think switching the app makes no sense, neither for trained xsi- users, nor for trained Maya- users.
To me, knowing my software is much more important than this or that feature.
But Face Robot made me think ;-)

Cheers

[ReBootedOne]

Anyone know when this beauty is going to arrive at sites JourneyEd?
I reaaaally wanna upgrade...

Thanks!

-eric

[DominikSusmel]

As small as it may seem - many of you probably haven't even noticed - this is the first version of Maya NOT available for IRIX :) official 'end of an era'

[doodlyD]

there is a OSX and LINUX version

[jramsay]

Jill,

Can Alias comment yet on the upgrade pricing of a possible 7.0 x64 build?



Sorry - we don't have any announcements yet regarding pricing, packaging or availability of a 64 bit Maya based product. We did show a technology preview at AGUA though, and an alpha version is currently being evaluated by several leading studios.

[Mahlon]

Rather sad to see that Autodesk are talking about a version of MAX that will run on 64 bit windows but isn't 64 bit as such. I can only imagine the confusion that is creating.

Yes, confusing maybe, but hardly sad. Just to clarify, Autodesk, like Alias, is demoing a 64 bit version of max at SIGGRAPH with no report of release date yet.


Mahlon Bouldin

[beaker]

Anyone know when this beauty is going to arrive at sites JourneyEd?
I reaaaally wanna upgrade...

Thanks!

-ericEdu always gets updates last. So probably after all the paying customers recieve their shipments in the mail. I would guess 1-2 months before Journey-Ed has it ready to ship to people.

[SkyZero]

I stumbled across this site that's offering Maya 7 on their site: http://www.academicsuperstore.com/market/marketdisp.html?PartNo=738517

Although Studica and JourneyEd don't have it available on their site yet. I would call that store and see how soon they ship. It's possible they might be trying to get a bunch of orders together for Maya 7 and not ship until the educational resellers receive their copies which, like beaker said, could be 1-2 months.

[shingo]

Well, as I mentioned earlier, I would be a ltitel suspucious of MAX's offering. i think they are talking about a version that runs on 64 bit OS and takes advnatage of the 64 bit OS in a minor way as opposed to a native 64 bit version.

Yes, confusing maybe, but hardly sad. Just to clarify, Autodesk, like Alias, is demoing a 64 bit version of max at SIGGRAPH with no report of release date yet.


Mahlon Bouldin

[ReBootedOne]

Edu always gets updates last. So probably after all the paying customers recieve their shipments in the mail. I would guess 1-2 months before Journey-Ed has it ready to ship to people.
Thanks, I figgered as such... I can wait a little while longer. :)

-eric

[pearson]

Hmm. I wonder if I should upgrade from 4.0.1?


:p

[elvis75k]

What's wrong with alias.com All is messed up. Most of the link are "not found".

Maybe is updating some good stuff?

[dotTom]

I was paging (paging being the operatve word) through the "What's new in Maya 7" section of the online help before coming into work this morning. They key phrase here is: "a lot".

[doodlyD]

this Full IK is cool but useless
i cant animating with it
those redraw bugs realy annoying
fingers !! itis imposible to animate them u move the arm then undo and all your fingers messed up!
in motionbulder its not a big problem to animate with!but in maya its freaking hard to finish the work with out saying bad words

so if you want to upgrade only because of FullBody Ik think twise

[elvis75k]

Some cool stuff here..

http://www.alias.com/glb/eng/community/siggraph2005/siggraph.jsp?item=movies

[shingo]

Well, I wouldn't say useless, but I do agree it has it's limitations. You are right that within Motino Builder it works well alongside mo-cap retargetting and fixes.

It's a good thing for newbies and beginners who haven't gotten into rigging, but these days, rigs are so specific to certain tasks that an all purpose rig is probably unrealistic.

this Full IK is cool but useless
i cant animating with it
those redraw bugs realy annoying
fingers !! itis imposible to animate them u move the arm then undo and all your fingers messed up!
in motionbulder its not a big problem to animate with!but in maya its freaking hard to finish the work with out saying bad words

so if you want to upgrade only because of FullBody Ik think twise

[doodlyD]

:banghead:

[doodlyD]

Well, I wouldn't say useless, but I do agree it has it's limitations. You are right that within Motino Builder it works well alongside mo-cap retargetting and fixes.

It's a good thing for newbies and beginners who haven't gotten into rigging, but these days, rigs are so specific to certain tasks that an all purpose rig is probably unrealistic.

actualy i wouldn 't recomended for biginners to start with this rig
there are alot of free rigs to play with ,if thay want full IK motionbuilder is still open

and its not about limitations , its about how it works with in maya
that is the problem
we are all know that the quality and control goes more from FK rigs =)

[Koogle]

Who is the artist that did the Maya7 box cover ? its really good

http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services/maya/img/title_banner_maya7_02.jpg

And is there a desktop wallpaper sized one around anyway?

[Morph21]

Dont know who have make the image but the style look like Meats Meiers :)

[mustique]

Yes Meier did the splashscreen image.
So who did the one for motionbuilder 7? That one looks almost better!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The fullbody IK rig in Maya is probably a first step to integrate MB.
And perhaps its initial purpose is providing better compatibility with imported animation
from MB.

Hope we see a realtime Maya environment someday that merges all the cool things. :sad:

[benwatt]

Yes Meier did the splashscreen image.
So who did the one for motionbuilder 7? That one looks almost better!


Loic Zimmerman made the MB7 cover according to Alias' site.

[beaker]

Hmm. I wonder if I should upgrade from 4.0.1?


:pUnfortunatly you can't.

[amitnike]

heloo attention all of u who have maya 5 .. upgarde only possible till aug 31st.

so hurry up or else u mite have to buy frensh license.

Cheers.

Amit

[[nitin design]]

Can someone please clarify for me-

Maya v6 to v7 Upgrade---> $1399

So if someone with Maya 6 wants to get Maya 7 + Platinum membership do they have to spend $1400 + $2000 = $3400?

Are you guaranteed 2 upgrades with Platinum membership? OR do you have to hope and pray that 2 updates will be released in your 1 year Platinum membership period?

[pearson]

Unfortunatly you can't.
:p I meant in the same way as when I say I'm going to 'upgrade' my PC; thow it on the pile and buy a new one.

But it's not my decision either way. Our pipeline was built around 4 and before we get 7 the whole pipeline has to be checked for potential issues. I'm just chompin' at the bit for some of the improvements Alias has made in the past 4-5 years.

[JasonA]

'] Maya v6 to v7 Upgrade---> $1399
interesting, they've changed the upgrading pricing paridigm. I'm sorry to see that..

back when, I upgraded from 4.5 to 6 for $899

[cpan]

nevermind...

[doodlyD]

any news about Bonus Tools for Maya 7 !?

[BillB]

Newsletter about release of 7 I just got from Alias says 6.0 to 7 = $899 until Aug 31st, then $1399.
Not bad.

[amitnike]

heloo all.. but keep in mind maya 5 users .. no upgrade possible after Aug 31st 2005

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