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| {{dablink|For other uses, see ]}} | |||
| {{Infobox Software | | |||
| name = Maya| | |||
| logo=] | | |||
| screenshot = ]| | |||
| caption = screenshot of Maya 2009 Unlimited running on ] | | |||
| developer = ], now owned by ] | | |||
| latest_release_version = 2009 (10.0) | | |||
| latest_release_date = October 06, 2008 | | |||
| operating_system = ], ], ] | | |||
| genre = ] | | |||
| commercial = yes | | |||
| license = ] | | |||
| website = }} | |||
| '''Maya''' is a high-end ] and ] software package originally developed by ], but now owned by ] as part of the ] division. Autodesk acquired the software in October 2005 upon purchasing Alias. Maya is used in the ] and ], as well as for ], architectural vizualisation and design. | |||
| In 2003, Maya (then owned by Alias|Wavefront) won an Academy Award "for scientific and technical achievement", citing use "on nearly every feature using 3-D computer-generated images."<ref>{{cite web|title=Scientific and Technical Achievements Honored with Academy Awards|url=http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2003/03.01.06.html|date=2003-01-06|accessdate=2009-10-01}}</ref> | |||
| == Overview == | |||
| Maya is a popular, integrated node-based 3D software suite, evolved from ] Explorer and ] ] using technologies from both. The software is released in two versions: Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited. Maya Personal Learning Edition (PLE) is available (excluding the ] version)<ref>http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=7679012#section1 - Autodesk Maya FAQ</ref> at no cost for non-commercial use, although the resulting rendered images are watermarked. | |||
| Maya was originally released for the ] operating system, and subsequently ported to the ], ] and ] operating systems. IRIX support was discontinued after the release of version 6.5. When ] acquired Alias in October 2005, they continued Maya development. The latest version, 2009 (10.0), was released in October 2008. | |||
| An important feature of Maya is its openness to third-party software, which can strip the software completely of its standard appearance and, using only the ], can transform it into a highly customized version of the software. This feature in itself made Maya appealing to large studios which tend to write custom code for their productions using the provided software development kit. | |||
| A ]-like cross-platform scripting language called '']'' (''MEL'') is provided not only as a scripting language, but as means to customize Maya's core functionality (much of the environment and tools are written in the language). Additionally, user interactions are implemented and recorded as MEL scripting code which users can store on a tool bar, allowing animators to add functionality without experience in C or ] programming and compilers, though that option is provided with the software development kit. Support for ] scripting was added in version 8.5. | |||
| The core of Maya itself is written in ]<ref>, maintained by C++ creator ]</ref>. | |||
| Project files, including all geometry and animation data, are stored as sequences of MEL operations which can be optionally saved as a 'human readable' file (.ma, for Maya ASCII), editable in any text editor outside of the Maya environment which allows for a high level of flexibility when working with external tools. | |||
| A ] is built into larger menu system called Hotbox that provides instant access to a majority of features in Maya at the press of a key. | |||
| == Modeling == | |||
| ], ] and ]s (or SubDivs) are available in Maya. | |||
| Polygons are a widely used model medium due to its relative stability and functionality. Polygons are also the bridge between NURBS and SubDivs. NURBS are used mainly for their ready-smooth appearance and they are used in Dynamics because they respond well to deformations. SubDivs are a combination of both NURBS and polygons. They are ready-smooth and can be manipulated like polygons, providing the artist with an instant representation of a smoothed polygon. Maya's hair cannot be applied to Sub division polygons. | |||
| == Overview of animation == | |||
| ;Keyframe Animation | |||
| The model is placed in a starting pose or position, and a keyframe is set. Some frames later, another keyframe is set, and the model is moved as desired. This process is repeated as many times as needed. The animation software interpolates the motion needed to move the model smoothly between the keyframes. What this means is that if the animator keys a box, and moves the box across the room in the next keyframe, when the scene is scrubbed or viewed, the box will glide across the floor instead of jumping from frame to frame. This applies to anything in the scene - moving fingers, eyelids, moving lips, etc. | |||
| ;Nonlinear Animation | |||
| :After animating a character with keyframes or motion capture, its animation data can be collected into a single, editable sequence. This animation sequence is called an animation clip. | |||
| :In Maya, there are two types of clip: source clips and regular clips. Maya preserves and protects a character's original animation curves by storing them in source clips. Source clips are not used to animate the characters. Instead, copies or instances of source clips called regular clips are used to animate the characters nonlinearly. | |||
| :Moving, manipulating, and blending regular clips to produce a smooth series of motions for a character is the basis of nonlinear animation. The tool with which all these aspects of a character's nonlinear animation can be managed is the Trax Editor. | |||
| ;Path Animation | |||
| :A path animation controls the position and rotation of an object along a curve. An object must first be attached to the curve for it to become a path curve. Motion paths can be generated by animating objects using motion path keys. | |||
| ;Motion Capture Animation | |||
| ;Skeletons | |||
| :Skeletons are hierarchical, articulated structures that let the animator pose and animate bound models. A skeleton provides a deformable model with a similar underlying structure as the human skeleton gives the human body. | |||
| :Just like in the human body, the location of joints and the number of joints you add to a skeleton determine how the skeleton's bound model or `body' moves. The process of binding a character to its skeleton is called "Skinning". The process of making a skeleton or bones, refining the joints, using IK or FK, putting handles on the joints so animators can manipulate them, and over all making the model ready for animation is called "Rigging" | |||
| :;Forward Kinematics | |||
| ::Forward Kinematics (FK) is an animation method that involves moving each joint without the restriction of an expected final position. Thus, the 'goal' is to move a joint (or series of joints) as desired, and the final pose is a consequence of those movements. Forward Kinematics is often used for finely-tuned joint movement (such as hands & fingers), as it allows for more complete control over posing. For more information, see ]. | |||
| :;Inverse Kinematics | |||
| ::The reverse of Forward Kinematics, Inverse Kinematics is a method that involves defining a final pose, and generating joint movement as needed to reach that pose. Thus, the 'goal' is for all joints to be in a final pose, and the individual joint movements are a consequence of getting to that final pose. Joints must have carefully defined limits to their possible motion for Inverse Kinematics to work well, or the joints can end up 'flopping' before reaching the goal pose. Inverse Kinematics is often used for large limb movement (such as walking, reaching, etc.). For more information, see ] and ].The inverse kinematics in Maya are directly evolved from ] ] | |||
| :;Full Body IK Solver | |||
| ::When Alias bought Kaydara, Maya got an upgrade, from Kaydara ], with a full body IK solver (FBIK Solver) which simulates real body kinematics. The package comes with a biped and a quadruped FBIK sample. | |||
| ;Skinning | |||
| :‘‘Skinning’’ is the process of setting up a character's model so that it can be deformed by a skeleton. You skin a model by binding a skeleton to the model. A model can be bound to a skeleton by a variety of skinning methods, including smooth skinning and rigid skinning. Smooth skinning and rigid skinning are direct skinning methods. Indirect skinning methods can also be used, which combine the use of lattice or wrap deformers with either smooth or rigid skinning. | |||
| ;Constraints | |||
| :‘‘Constraints’’ enable the animator to constrain the position, orientation, or scale of an object to other objects. Constraints are often used to depict characters manipulating or interacting with props or the environment. Further, with constraints specific limits on objects and automate animation processes can be imposed. | |||
| ;Character Sets | |||
| :In Maya, a character set is a node that brings together into a set all the attributes of any collection of objects that you want to animate together. The character set could be anything: a well-armed robot, an automobile, or even some seemingly unrelated collection of objects. Maya enables you to bring all the attributes together in a character node, so you only have to select one node, the character node, when you want to animate all the various attributes. | |||
| ;Deformers | |||
| :‘‘Deformers’’ are high-level tools that you can use to manipulate (when modeling) or drive (when animating) the low-level components of a target geometry. In other software packages, the terms modifiers and space warps are used to refer to what Maya calls deformers. The following are the many types of deformers: Blend Shape deformer, Lattice deformer, Cluster deformer, Nonlinear deformers, Sculpt deformer, Soft Modification deformer, Jiggle deformer, Wire deformer, Wrinkle deformer, Wrap deformer, Point On Curve deformer. | |||
| == Dynamics and simulation == | |||
| Maya features a ] for handling masses like steam and water drops. Dynamic fields allow adding gravity, wind and vortexes, allowing for effects such as blowing leaves or even tornados. Special tools give artists the ability to brush and style particles like hair and fur. This module is a direct evolution of ] ]. | |||
| An artist may create ] geometric objects which collide automatically without explicit animation, as well as ] objects which can ripple and bend, like flags and cloth. | |||
| Maya effects are built-in programs that make it easy for users to create complex animation effects such as smoke, fire and realistic water effects, with many options and attributes for tuning the results. | |||
| In version 8.5 a powerful cloth simulator called "nCloth" was added, allowing users to simulate cloth with control over aspects such as self-collision and interpenetration. The cloth objects can be modified to behave as rigid or soft bodies. | |||
| = | |||
| == Maya Unlimited == | |||
| Maya Unlimited version comes with a set of tools not available in the Maya complete version. | |||
| ;Maya Fluid Effects | |||
| :A realistic fluid simulator (effective for smoke, fire, clouds and explosions, added in Maya 4.5) | |||
| ;Maya Classic Cloth | |||
| :Cloth simulation to automatically simulate clothing and fabrics moving realistically over an animated character. The Maya Cloth toolset has been upgraded in every version of Maya released after Spider-Man 2. Alias worked with Sony Pictures Imageworks to get Maya Cloth up to scratch for that production, and all those changes have been implemented, although the big studios opted to use third party plugins such as ] instead of the (relatively) cumbersome Maya Cloth. | |||
| ;Maya Fur | |||
| :Animal fur simulation similar to Maya Hair. It can be used to simulate other fur-like objects, such as grass. | |||
| ;Maya Hair | |||
| :A simulator for realistic-looking human hair implemented using curves and PaintEffects. These are also known as dynamic curves. | |||
| ;Maya Live | |||
| :A set of motion tracking tools for CG matching to clean plate footage. | |||
| ;Maya nCloth | |||
| :Added in version 8.5, nCloth is the first implementation of Maya Nucleus, Autodesk's simulation framework. nCloth gives the artist further control of cloth and material simulations. | |||
| ; Maya nParticle | |||
| :Added in version 2009, nParticle is addentum to Maya Nucleus toolset. nParticle gives artists an intuitive, efficient workflow for simulating a wide range of complex 3D effects, including liquids, clouds, smoke, spray, and dust. | |||
| == Scripting and plugins == | |||
| In Maya, anything can be connected to anything. E.g. a color intensity of a shader can be used to control the movement of a door opening and closing. To control the node based system of Maya, fully reconfigurable user interface can be scripted with ] script code which can be dropped onto a shelf to create a new icon that executes that code. | |||
| With the release of Maya 8.5 support for the ] has been included. The current implementation of Python in maya is not fully object oriented though. | |||
| *] | |||
| === Mel scripting === | |||
| Mel stands for Maya Embedded language and it's a script language similar to C embedded in Maya. | |||
| Code written in Mel can be executed from the script editor, from the shelves and from drop down menus. | |||
| Mel lets the user have more access and more control than the User Interface; some functions of the software and advanced options are only available by using Mel. | |||
| All maya preferences are maya code so are the drop down menus. This means that it is always possible, with a little digging, to retrieve the mel commands | |||
| and mel functions that maya calls when you click a specific button of the UI. | |||
| Mel is not object oriented, this means it is not possible create classes and methods or functions associated to it as you would in C++ or Python. | |||
| This however shouldn't be seen as a mere limitation because it gives Mel a strong structure making it accessible and easier to understand to Maya users and to first time programmers. | |||
| Also the linear scripting nature of the language would assist the user in making the most of the maya nodes instead of tempting him/her to make its own objects, as in case of object oriented languages. | |||
| == History == | |||
| Maya is the culmination of three 3D software lines: Wavefront's The Advanced Visualizer (in California), Thomson Digital Image (TDI) Explore (in France) and Alias' Power Animator (in Canada). In 1993 Wavefront purchased TDI, and in 1995 ] (SGI) purchased both Alias and Wavefront (due to pressure from ]'s purchase of ] earlier that year) and combined them into one working company, producing a single package from their collective source code. The combined company was referred to as Alias|Wavefront. In the mid-1990s, the most popular pipeline in Hollywood films was a combination of tools: Alias Studio for modeling, ] for animation, and ] for rendering.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://silicon-valley.siggraph.org/MeetingNotes/ILM.html |title=Jurassic Park - The Illusion of Life}}</ref> This combination was used for numerous films, such as ], ] and '']''. It took Alias|Wavefront two more years after the merger to release Maya. | |||
| Both Alias and Wavefront were working on their next generation of software at the time of the merger. Alias had taken a Macintosh product, "]", moved it to the SGI platform and added many features to it. The code name for this project was "]", the ] term for "illusion." Maya was developed in close collaboration with Walt Disney Feature Animation, during the production of '']'', and the GUI was all customizable as a requirement from Disney so they could set up their own GUI and workflow based on decades of animation experience. This had a large impact on the openness of Maya and later also helped the software become an industry standard, since many facilities implement extensive proprietary customization of the software to gain competitive advantage. | |||
| It was then decided to adopt Alias' "Maya" architecture, and merge Wavefront's code with it. | |||
| In the early days of development, Maya used Tcl as the scripting language. After the merger, there was debate amongst those who supported ], ] and ]. Sophia was much faster than the others and won out. However, once ] was added, it ended up being equally slow. | |||
| <!-- Unsourced image removed: ] --> | |||
| Upon its release in 1998, Alias|Wavefront discontinued all previous animation-based software lines including Alias Power Animator, encouraging consumers to upgrade to Maya. It succeeded in expanding its product line to take over a great deal of market share, with leading visual effects companies such as ] and ] switching from ] to Maya for the animation software. | |||
| Later Alias|Wavefront was renamed Alias. In 2003 Alias was sold by SGI to the ] and the private equity investment firm ]. In October 2005, Alias was sold again, this time to Autodesk, and on January 10, ], ] completed the acquisition and ''Alias'' Maya is now known as '''Autodesk Maya'''. | |||
| == Official Maya learning tools == | |||
| Along with the history of Maya the company has produced Maya learning tools which date back to the earlier Alias days. Beginning with an internally produced newsletter on Maya software techniques and workflows, the company continued with the internally produced Art of Maya book and training videos and tutorials. In response to strong user demand the company's education department further developed instructional books and video-based learning content referred to as learning tools. Autodesk continues to develop learning tools with content developed both by internal product specialists as well as industry professionals. The company's video-based learning tools have recently moved away from physical production and are now available as digital downloads.{{Fact|date=July 2008}} | |||
| ==Current version (2009)== | |||
| The system requirements for Maya 2009 are as follows: | |||
| * Windows and Linux: Intel Pentium 4 or higher, AMD Athlon 64, or AMD Opteron processor | |||
| * Macintosh: Intel-based Macintosh computers | |||
| * 2 GB RAM | |||
| * 2 GB hard disk space | |||
| * Qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics card | |||
| * Three-button mouse with mouse driver software | |||
| * DVD-ROM drive | |||
| == Version release dates history == | |||
| * 2009 October ] | |||
| * 2008 Extension 2, Only to subscribers(9.2): February ] | |||
| * 2008 Extension 1, Only to subscribers(9.1): December ] | |||
| * 2008 (Support for Windows Vista, 9.0): September ] | |||
| * 8.5 SP1: June ] | |||
| * 8.5: January ] | |||
| * 8.0: August ] | |||
| * 7.0.1: December ] | |||
| * 7.0: August ] | |||
| * 6.5.1: December ] | |||
| * 6.5: January ] (last shipping IRIX Version) | |||
| * 6.0: May ] | |||
| * 5.0: May ] | |||
| * 4.5: July ] | |||
| * 4.0: June ] (no Mac OS X Version) | |||
| * 3.5.1: September ] (Mac OS X only) | |||
| * 3.5: October ] (first shipping Mac OS X Version only) | |||
| * 3.0: February ] (first shipping Linux Version) | |||
| * 2.5.2: March ] | |||
| * 2.5: November ] | |||
| * 2.0: June ] | |||
| * 1.5: October ] (IRIX only) | |||
| * 1.0.1: October ] (Windows Version) | |||
| * 1.0.1: June ] (IRIX Version) | |||
| * 1.0: June ] (first shipping Windows Version) | |||
| * 1.0: February ] | |||
| == References == | |||
| *"Maya 7 for Windows and Macintosh" by Danny Riddel, Morgan Robinson and Nathaniel Stein. Peachpit Press, 2006. | |||
| *"Mel Scripting for Maya Animators" by Mark R. Wilkins and Chris Kazmier, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2005. | |||
| *"Understanding Maya" by Sergey Tsiptsin, ArtHouse Media, 2007. | |||
| {{reflist}} | |||
| ==See also== | |||
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| == External links == | |||
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Revision as of 00:06, 3 December 2008
ROCK ON