3D computer animation, modeling, simulation, and rendering software
Bring your imagination to life with Autodesk Maya® and create amazing 3D worlds, complex characters, and stunning effects. From Windows to macOS or Linux – the possibilities are endless! Join other professionals in making captivating visuals – unleash your inner director today with Maya’s powerful animation software.
Maya is professional 3D software for creating realistic characters and blockbuster-worthy effects.
- Bring believable characters to life with engaging animation tools.
- Shape 3D objects and scenes with intuitive modeling tools.
- Create realistic effects—from explosions to cloth simulation.
Why use Maya?
Accelerate workflows
Maya’s powerful tools help you iterate faster so you can focus on creativity and meet deadlines.
Deliver stunning visuals
Add fine details to characters and scenes, and deliver quality work that keeps clients coming back.
Scale for complexity
Top artists in the industry rely on Maya to create the most complex shots, characters, and worlds.
What you can do with Maya
Breathe life into 3D models with powerful animation tools
Whether you’re animating lifelike digi doubles or lovable cartoon characters, Maya has the animation toolset to bring your 3D assets to life.
Image courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc
Create detailed simulations with Bifrost for Maya
From blazing explosions to complex snowstorms, Bifrost makes it possible to create physically accurate simulations in a single visual programming environment.
What’s new in Maya 2024 – Raise the creative bar with next gen tools in Maya
Produce content faster and raise the bar of high-quality visuals with new capabilities in Maya. This release brings support for LookDevX, an agnostic material editor that allows you to share materials seamlessly across the pipeline and includes a new, modern, node-based environment for authoring material graphs like USD, MaterialX, and Arnold. Maya also offers you more artistic control with updates to modeling tools like Retopologize and the Boolean toolset, while animation and rigging updates keep you in the creative zone.
Create photoreal scenes with powerful look development tools
LookDevX
LookDevX is an agnostic material editor that enables standardized, portable material workflows. It allows you to share materials freely and accurately throughout a pipeline and includes a new, modern, node-based environment for authoring a variety of materials like USDShade, MaterialX, and Arnold.
LookdevX Graph
The LookDevX graph is an agnostic material graphing environment that currently supports material editing and authoring of USDshade graphs. Features like compounds, multi-level automatic node zoom, duplicating graphs, dedicated property editor, color-managed color pots and color picker, direct material assignment, authoring UI are just some of available toolsets that will you to handle complex USD workflows.
USD Direct Material Assignment
The Outliner and LookDevX now support the assignment and removal of USD materials to one or more selected Prims in the USD stage. You can create new materials under the “mtl” scope list and control naming using environment variables. Material Subsets are functional and exposed in the USD Stage, but don’t currently support direct material assignment. Additionally, you can add materials to any selected material scope and move materials between scopes.
Attribute editor USD Material Support
The Attribute Editor can accurately compose USD materials with regards to UI groups and attribute names. A dedicated Material tab allows you to easily find and manage materials and shader properties. Custom authored materials and their UI groups are synced and are accurately represented between the LookDevX Property Editor and Attribute Editor.
Outliner USD Material Workflows
The Outliner has been enhanced to enable a comprehensive material workflow for artists. When performing direct material assignment, materials are created under a standardized or user-desired material scope name and are listed with regards to their compound organisation. You can move materials between scopes, add materials directly under your desired scope, and rename or delete selected materials. Multiselected actions are also supported for material assignment and for graphing materials from the Outliner to LookDevX.
Loading USD Material Graphs in to LookdevX
You can easily send USD materials from the Viewport and Outliner to LookDevX for any additional adjustments. Multiselect actions for graphing materials are enabled from the Outliner. You can also organize your LookDevX canvas by loading or clearing one or more selected materials.
Supporting different material libraries
LookDevX supports USD Shade, MaterialX and Arnold graphs giving you the flexibility to use various material libraries. Nodes are clearly illustrated using dedicated icons and prefixes on node types. LookDevX is designed and engineered as an Open Render plugin.
Material authoring workflow
LookDevX is a comprehensive material authoring workflow enabling look development artists to express themselves creatively and give them the ability to experiment with complex shading networks that can used by other artists down the pipeline. You can control minimum and maximum attribute range, customize the UI or selectively hide ports.
Produce high-quality visuals with interactive lighting and rendering tools
Standard Surface
The Standard Surface shader is now the default shader for new objects in Maya. This offers a better out-of-the-box experience with quick access to a higher quality, physically based, flexible uber-shader that can represent a wide range of looks in the viewport as well as renderers such as Arnold. This includes metals, paint, clay, plastic and more.
Better default lighting in the Viewport
The default lighting in Maya has been improved to give better results with the new default Standard Surface shader. This will enable you to create new objects as well as default materials and lighting more
easily. Additionally, new settings have been exposed for tuning default lighting.
OCIO 2.2 Integration
New updates to OpenColorIO 2.2 include several notable features including new ACES configs with improved accuracy and user-experience. Added support for config archives will enable make sending configs between collaborators more reliable. Built-in configs will allow convenient access without the need to download a config.
Create CG assets seamlessly with a robust modeling toolset
Retopologize Improvements
- Feature Preservation: Preserve features like hard edges, edges by angle, and user-defined edge Component Tags during the retopologize process. New feature preservation options allow you to maintain specific areas of detail on input mesh and control or guide the resulting edge flow of a retopologized output mesh.
- Symmetry support: Retopologize meshes that require symmetrical topology using controls for axis and direction, takes into account world and object space, as well as orientation and pivot offsets. This is useful for things such as characters and creatures, as well as any hard surface objects that require mirrored topology on two sides, for example a chair or a mechanical part.
- Mesh Pre-check: A new option called “Scan input mesh for issues” warns you about potential problems with your mesh or about certain options that may cause undesirable results with a given mesh. Tips will also be provided to help you troubleshoot.
Make Live
- Multiple object support: Make Live now supports multiple objects at a time and provides visual feedback in the UI to help you identify which objects are live, including colored highlighting in the Outliner. You can target as many objects as you want in the viewport for things like snapping and constraining objects or components, as well as supporting Quad Draw workflows.
- Quad Draw Improvements: Quad Draw has been updated to work with multiple Make Live objects as well target meshes that have been set to Smooth Mesh preview mode. You can use Quad Draw to create new, simplified geometry on top of more complex collections of target meshes such as full characters that are made up of many individual pieces like clothing, armor, gear, and more.
Unsmooth Mesh
This new feature allows you to reduce the number of subdivisions of any catmul-clark smoothed, high-res mesh. You can now reverse the subdivision of more complex meshes while maintaining the overall shape and volume. This can be useful for creating low resolution versions meshes that have been smoothed and subdivided during sculpting process.
Boolean Toolset
Improvements to the Boolean toolset give modelers more control when adding and editing new input objects in the Boolean Stack. Additionally, a new Interactive Update option provides a way to improve boolean performance while working with complex dense meshes.
Produce life-like performances with modern animation workflows
Time Slider UI/UX Improvements
The Time Slider and its associated tools have been redesigned to provide a more intuitive and modern experience. This includes improvements to key, waveform and bookmark display, as well as interaction modes for moving and scaling keyframes, setting time ranges and more. You will be able to navigate and manipulate the timeline more intuitively and edit your animations more easily, directly in the Time Slider.
Animation Curve Brushes in the Graph Editor
New brush-based curve editing tools in the Graph Editor let you intuitively shape groups of keys. Using the Grab, Smooth and Smear tools, you can now interactively sculpt and refine the shape of curves to adjust or clean up existing animation. This is particularly useful for working with dense animation curve data such as motion capture or baked simulations.
Key and curve editing utilities
Several new key and curve editing features including offset curves, clamp curves and remove keys let you quickly modify the time and/or value of selected keys, ranges of keys or whole curves.
Interactive Key Scaling Improvements
A new key scaling widget removes the guesswork from the Scale Keys tool by introducing a manipulator as an alternative to the traditional gestural method. It will also display a value for your keys as you drag, or let you enter a percentage directly in the numeric value fields. This makes scaling curves and keys more intuitive and allows animators to control scale with more precision.
Unreal Live Link for Maya
Stream animation data seamlessly between Maya and Unreal 5.1.
Work with precision using enhanced rigging tools
Reorder Rotation
The new Reorder Rotation feature lets you change the rotation axes of a selected object and also evaluates and shows the likelihood of gimbal lock for each. You change the rotation order of a control after it has been animated or when you don’t want to change the object pose.
Skin Cluster / Component Editor – Multi Skin Clusters
You can now have more than one Skin Cluster on a single piece of geometry, opening the door to many new possibilities for riggers. Artists will have the ability to easily layer deformations like creating a layer for squash and stretch, a layer for kinematic motions, and another for fine details. This also opens up possibilities for alternate weighting for a variety of needs, both technical and artistic.
Paint Skin Weights – Numeric Deformer Weight Visualization
A new Weight Visualization setting in the Paint Skin Weights Tool lets you display weight influence numerically in the Viewport. Animators and riggers can view and edit the influence of weighting on surrounding joints and influences more precisely.
Other Rigging Improvements
- Rigging Math Nodes: A robust set of math nodes have been added to the suite of utility nodes that riggers can leverage for complex character rigs. This includes nodes such as sin, pi, cos, log, lerp and many more. The nodes allow riggers to combine simple math operations into node graphs that make up complex rig components.
- aimMatrix and blendMatrix improvements: A new matrix setting has been added to both the aimMatrix and blendMatrix nodes. SpaceMatrix is a set of Pre and Post Matrix floats that multiply inputs and outputs. This will allow riggers to create setups without the need for extra multMatrix nodes.
Artist-friendly updates
Mac M1 architecture support
Artists on the Mac platform will now be able to run Maya on modern systems with the latest M1 architecture.
Viewport Panel Filter UI
In the Show Menu of the Viewport, menu items are now sorted into categories in alphabetic order. You can also save custom filter presets allowing you to quickly switch between filters in any given viewport to focus on your work.
Hydra for Maya
This first look of Hydra for Maya enables you to use Pixar’s Hydra rendering framework as a viewport inside of Maya. This plugin is part of the USD for Maya and is open source. With Storm, you get Hydra’s primary rasterization render engine which is highly scalable, multi-pass and includes OpenSubdiv mesh rendering support. With the render delegate system you also have the ability to use the renderer of your choice.
Autodesk Maya Features
Powerful character creation, animation, and VFX tools
From fantastic creatures to sweeping landscapes and explosive battle sequences, the Academy Award-winning Maya® toolset is a top choice for creating believable characters and the worlds around them.
Dynamics and effects
Bifrost visual programming environment
Create physically accurate and incredibly detailed simulations in a single visual programming environment.
Ready-to-use graphs
Create great-looking effects, such as snow and dust storms, right out of the box with prebuilt graphs.
Bifrost Fluids
Simulate and render photorealistic liquid effects.
Interactive hair grooming
Use powerful interactive groom tools to create realistic hair and fur for your characters.
Bifrost Ocean Simulation System
Create realistic ocean surfaces with waves, ripples, and wakes.
Physics and effects
Create highly realistic rigid, soft-body, cloth, and particle simulations.
Universal Scene Description (USD) workflows
New | Lighting speed
Load and edit massive data sets in a matter of seconds using USD in Maya.
New | Seamless import/export
Import USD data as native Maya data and export native Maya data as USD data.
New | Lightweight previews
See quick previews of USD scene structure using the new Hierarchy View Window.
New | In-memory USD stage support
Work directly with USD data in common Maya editors such as the Outliner and Attribute Editor.
New | USD in the viewport
See USD natively alongside Maya data in the viewport.
New | Open source and fully customizable
The Maya USD plug-in is available as an open-source project for studios to customize as needed.
3D animation
Fast playback
Review animations faster and produce fewer playblasts with cached playback in Viewport 2.0.
Time Editor
Make high-level animation edits with a nondestructive, clip-based, nonlinear editor.
Graph Editor
Create, view, and modify animation curves using a graphical representation of scene animation.
New | Ghosting Editor
Precisely visualize movement and the position of animated objects over time.
Deformation effects
Enhance character and object animation with powerful deformation effects.
Native Motion Library plug-in
Access high-quality motion capture data right in Maya.
Rigging
Character setup
Create sophisticated skeletons, IK handles, and deformers for characters that deliver lifelike performances.
Skinning
Seamlessly bind any modeled surface to a skeleton using skinning.
Retargeting
Easily transfer animation between skeletons that have the same or different skeletal structures.
3D modeling
Polygon modeling
Create 3D models using geometry based on vertices, edges, and faces.
NURBS modeling
Construct 3D models from geometric primitives and drawn curves.
UV editing and toolkit
View and edit the UV texture coordinates for polygon, NURBS, and subdivision surfaces in a 2D view.
Sculpting toolset
Sculpt and shape models more artistically and intuitively.
OpenSubdiv support
Accelerate performance with interactive workflows.
3D rendering and shading
Integrated Arnold renderer
Use Arnold Render View to view scene changes in real time, including lighting, materials, and cameras.
GPU and CPU rendering
Use Arnold for production rendering on both the CPU and GPU.
Standard Surface Shader
Model materials such as car paint, frosted glass, and plastic, and preview renders in the viewport.
Look development with Hypershade
Build shading networks by creating and connecting rendering nodes, such as textures, materials, and lights.
Color management
See accurate previews of final colors in the viewport and Render View.
Motion graphics
MASH procedural effects
Use MASH to create versatile motion design animations with procedural node networks
3D Type
Create branding, flying logos, title sequences, and other projects that require text.
Adobe Live link
View a scene in both Maya and Adobe After Effects at the same time.
Pipeline integration
New | Python 3
Create Maya scripts and write plug-ins using Python 3.
Customization
Customize how Maya looks and works to suit your pipeline.
Scene Assembly tools
Create large, complex worlds more easily and manage production assets as discrete elements.
Description
What’s new in Maya 2024
Modeling Updates
Updates to the Retopologize, Make Live, Quad Draw, Boolean, and Unsmooth workflows include interface and usability improvements that let modelers produce better results.
New Graph Editor Curve Sculpting tools
New tools have been added to the Graph Editor to give you a quick and intuitive way shape keys and curves.
USD for Maya 0.22 plug-in
This release provides important stability fixes and feature updates for workflows such as relative pathing and using display layers with the updated Universal Scene Description (USD) plug-in for Maya.
LookdevX Technology Preview
LookdevX for Maya is a new look-development tool that lets you create USD shade graphs and author custom materials in Maya.
What’s New in Character Animation
Several updates have been made to Character animation workflows, from a tool for changing rotation order, support for multiple skin clusters, and a new way to view skin weights numerically.
Graph Editor Improvements
New tools have been added based on customer feedback to improve commonly-used Graph Editor workflows.
Animation Performance improvements
This release contains significant animation performance improvements, especially when playing back animation on complex rigs.
Time Slider Redesign
Maya Time Slider and Range Slider updates have brought several changes, from the way audio is shown, to new color defaults for keys.
Bifrost 2.7.0.0
Bifrost 2.7.0.0 introduces MPM gel simulations, improved volume rendering in the viewport, and many other new and improved features.
Arnold for Maya 5.3.0
Maya 2024 ships with MtoA 5.3.0, which introduces Arnold 7.2.0.0 and is a major feature release bringing improvements to volume shading and viewport rendering, support for Apple Silicon, and a more flexible physical sky that allows for separate sky and sun lights.
Substance 2.3.2
Maya 2024 includes Substance version 2.3.2.
New in the Maya 2024 devkit
The Maya 2024 devkit includes changes to commands, examples, and APIs, and new minimum versions.
New Apple Silicon Support
Maya 2024 takes full advantage of the arm64 instruction set.
System Requirements
Maya 2023
Operating System
- Microsoft® Windows® 10, version 1809 or higher.
- Microsoft® Windows® 11
- Apple® macOS® 13.x, 12.x, 11.x
- Linux® Red Hat® Enterprise 8.6 WS
- Rocky Linux 8.6
See Autodesk’s Product Support Lifecycle for support information.
Browser
Autodesk recommends the latest version of the following web browsers for access to online supplemental content:
- Apple Safari web browser
- Google® Chrome web browser
- Microsoft Edge web browser
- Mozilla® Firefox® web browser
Disclaimer: The VMware application is network-based and performance of Autodesk Maya for VMware software products may vary with network performance. The software does not include the VMware application, nor does Autodesk provide direct support for issues with the VMware application. Users should contact VMware directly with questions related to procurement and operation of the VMware application.
Hardware
- CPU:64-bit Intel® or AMD® with SSE4.2 instruction set. For macOS, Apple Silicon arm64 or Intel x86
- Graphics Hardware: Refer to the following pages for a detailed list of recommended systems and graphics cards:
Maya Certified Hardware - RAM: 8 GB of RAM (16 GB or more recommended)
- Disk Space: 7 GB of free disk space for install
- Pointing Device: Three-button mouse
Autodesk is not responsible for errors or failures of Autodesk software arising from the installation of updates, extensions, or new releases issued by third-party hardware or software vendors for the certified software or hardware identified in this document (or for any other third-party software or hardware that you may use in connection with Autodesk products).
Note: Not all Autodesk product offerings may be virtualized. You may virtualize a product only if the applicable terms and conditions governing your access to and use of that offering expressly permit virtualization. Where virtualization is authorized, all conditions and limitations specified in the applicable terms and conditions apply. Autodesk may make available information regarding the use of products in virtualized environments. Such information is offered solely for your convenience, on an “as is” basis, and may contain errors, inaccuracies, or may be incomplete. Autodesk makes no representations, warranties, or other promises related to the use of any product in any virtualization environment or with any virtualization technology. If you are authorized to virtualize and elect to do so, you assume all risks associated with such use, including, but not limited to incompatibility between the product and third-party virtualization technology and/or your virtualization environment. Read our Terms of Use for more information.
Change Log
Update Maya 2024.1
Time Slider Enhancements
Two new improvements continue the redesign of the Time Slider in Maya 2024.
Skin Cluster Improvements
Several enhancements build on the multiple Skin Cluster support in Maya 2024.
Delete Multiple Display Layers
A useful new behaviour for working in the Display Layer Editor.
LookdevX Enhancements
In this release, LookdevX has received some notable updates to organize complex node graphs and improve workflows.
What else is new?
This release of Maya also includes the following changes and improvements.
- New Proximity Wrap deformer attribute – A new Proximity Wrap deformer attribute, Scale Compensation, has been added to the Proximity Wrap Attribute Editor settings to be a simple float value that contains the scale compensation, instead of using a matrix to specify the scale. You can use this in combination with or as a replacement for hooking up a matrix to driverClusterMatrix.
- New Lattice deformer option – A new Minimum Size option has been added to the Lattice options to address problems that occur when Lattice deformer Y-scale values were set to 0.0. The Minimum Size option is only on when the Centre Around Selection attribute is active, letting you specify a minimum size for the lattice to avoid the creation of lattices where one or more sides length is 0.0.
An additional option has also been added to the lattice command -mns -minimumSize Float, which can only be used in conjunction with the objectCentered flag - Bifrost 2.7.0.1 – Maya includes Bifrost for Maya 2.7.0.1. See the Bifrost release notes for more details.
- Hydra for Maya (Technology Preview) – Hydra for Maya is available since the release of USD for Maya v0.23 and is intended for use as a render delegate in the Viewport. See load and manage plug-ins for more information and visit the official Autodesk MayaUSD GitHub repository to learn more about Hydra. Note: Hydra for Maya is not supported on MacOS.
What’s new in Maya 2024 – Raise the creative bar with next gen tools in Maya
Produce content faster and raise the bar of high-quality visuals with new capabilities in Maya. This release brings support for LookDevX, an agnostic material editor that allows you to share materials seamlessly across the pipeline and includes a new, modern, node-based environment for authoring material graphs like USD, MaterialX, and Arnold. Maya also offers you more artistic control with updates to modeling tools like Retopologize and the Boolean toolset, while animation and rigging updates keep you in the creative zone.\
Read What’s New in Maya 2024 for all the details.
What’s new in Maya 2023.3
Maya brings enhanced tools so you can focus on your most important tasks and devote time on being creative. New options for controlling Proximity Wrap driver behaviour enable you to stay productive, while new settings for manipulating left-drag behaviour help reduce friction points in your workflow. Maya also comes with latest version of the USD plugin and Arnold for an optimized artist experienc
- Global Scaling for Proximity Wrap
- Optimized left-drag behavior
- Hyperhsade preferences
- Autodesk Translation Framework (ATF)
- Improvements to USD and Arnold
Read What’s New in Maya 2023.3 for all the details.
Maya 2023.2 Release notes
Released 14 September 2022
utodesk’s primary focus is performance in animation and rigging. These new features make workflows simpler, improve your experience, and save time. They’ve also enhanced Bifrost, USD, and Arnold plug-ins.
- Animation Performance improvements include significant enhancements to the GPU deformation workflow.
- Blue Pencil improvements include new Falloff curves to define Blue Pencil strokes, among other improvements.
- New Graph Editor Tangent controls got two new options: Angle and Weight for better control and ease of use.
- The new Joint draw style is useful for working with rigs that contain multiple child joints in a small area.
- USD for Maya 0.19 plug-in
- And much more… Read the fine details of the update on the Autodesk website: What’s new in Maya 2023.2
What’s new in Autodesk 2023.1
- New Options for Boolean Operations – Several updates to the new Boolean workflow give you more control when creating complex models.
- Vertex Color Changes – Display RGB channels individually or as a greyscale on meshes for better visual feedback on the color of your objects. The Paint Vertex Color Tool has also been improved to restrict painting to individual RGB channels and display specific color channels as greyscale, preventing the accidental painting of other channels.
- Improved USD Integration – Several enhancements and important bug fixes bring you a smoother experience when working with USD in Maya. Benefit from improvements to material handling with extended support for MaterialX and increased support for native Maya shaders such as color correction and AMD’s MaterialX Library. Additional updates include more accurate intensities for default lights, UI enhancements and general robustness for Maya Reference workflows and “Edit as Maya”.
- Capabilities in Arnold – Arnold brings increased stability, performance, and bug fixes offering you a more user-friendly experience and compatibility with Maya when rendering your projects.
- Operator SDK in Bifrost (requires seperate download) – Work faster with customizable tools in Bifrost. The first public SDK for the Bifrost graph allows existing C++ libraries to be brought into Bifrost and used as first-class citizens of the graph. You can now perform last-mile visual programming to customize those systems or build your own systems on top of those.
- Other capabilities in Bifrost (requires seperate download)
- Colored Aero Simulations
From plumes of brightly colored powder mingling in the air to explosions where dirt, sooty smoke, and steam blend together – Bifrost can now simulate colored gasses mixing in the air to be rendered artifact-free in Arnold. Colors can be sourced from raw data such as painted color sets, particle colors, or fields defining colors in space. - Improved MPM Diagnostic
MPM has new diagnostics and diagnostic controls enabling you to better understand what is happening in your simulations. - Bifrost 2.5 is not included with Maya 2023.1 and requires a seperate download here.
- Colored Aero Simulations
What’s new in Autodesk 2023
Updated USD plug-in for Maya
Updated Universal Scene Description (USD) support in Maya lets artists work seamlessly with USD in conjunction with Maya workflows.
Bifrost 2.4.0.0
Bifrost 2.4.0.0 introduces Bifrost-USD, combining the power of USD to assemble, organize, and edit assets non-destructively with the flexibility and friendliness of the Bifrost graph.
Introducing Blue Pencil
Brand new Blue Pencil tools let you create 2D drawings, text, and shapes in the viewport, perfect for animation blocking or annotating your scene file with notes and suggestions.
Improved Boolean Operations
Create and edit boolean operations in fewer clicks using the new Boolean node.
Improved User Experience
Maya has undergone a number of improvements for first-time and returning users alike. These include a new Application Home hub, Interactive Tutorials, Search, and Viewcube.
Mesh Wireframe Opacity
Alpha channels are now available in the Color Chooser, letting you set the opacity of the wireframe on objects.
What’s New in Animation Performance
Maya 2023 includes several animation performance improvements to help speed up your work, including updates to Cached Playback, Evaluation Toolkit, and Bake Simulation options.
Retopology tools for Maya
Updates to retopology tools in Maya enable artists to achieve enhanced results for their meshes.
Deformer updates
New Retargeting and Mirror capabilities, Solidify scaling options, and extra Deformer falloffs have been added to the Maya deformation arsenal.
Additional Component Tag options
New functionality has been added for Component Tags to give you more control over tag membership.
What’s New in Modeling Performance
Additional performance improvements and tool updates speed up common modeling workflows and produce more predictable results.
New Sweep Mesh option
A new option has been added to the Sweep Mesh tool to let you choose whether to use single creator node or multiple creator nodes per curve.
Arnold for Maya 5.1.0 plug-in
Maya 2023 provides MtoA 5.1.0 which includes new features, performance improvements, and bug fixes.
Create VR for Maya
Create VR for Maya is an immersive conceptual design tool that empowers artists and designers to start their creative process directly in 3D.
Operating System, Python, and PyMEL Updates
Maya 2023 has added support for Rocky Linux, and has a new minimum required version of macOS. Maya 2023 now uses Python 3 exclusively.
What’s New in the Maya 2023 devkit
The Maya 2023 devkit includes a new minimum CMake version, new Blue Pencil APIs and commands, and several other changes.
What else is new?
Pin tabs in the Attribute Editor
The new Pin Tab icon in the Attribute Editor simplifies workflows where multiple selections are required. Click to keep the selected tab loaded, even when you make another selection in your scene.
deformerEvaluator improvements
The output from the Mesh information, Selected Nodes Status, and Clusters reports have been improved so that the information is easier to read.
Script Editor output of the Mesh Information report: A. Before cleanup, B. After cleanup
Color Management
Maya now integrates OpenColorIO version 2.0.1 for color management. This version includes fixes for several bugs in the previous version.
In addition:
- If you are using a configuration file that assigns color spaces to families, the families are used to organize the color spaces into submenus in the Maya interface. However, note that the configuration files installed with Maya do not make use of this feature.
- In the Color Management preferences, you can click the drop-down arrow to the right of OCIO Config Path to quickly select the default configuration used for new scenes, the configuration used for legacy scenes, or the most recently used npn-default configuration, in addition to browsing for files.
- The Color Management checkbox has been removed from the Color Chooser. In its place, you can select Data from the Mixing Color Space drop-down menu. When Data is selected, the raw numeric color values are stored and in addition, the view transform is not applied to the swatch or other color controls.
- The new Invert View option for File texture nodes applies the inverse of a view transform to the color values in the texture. This can be useful with image planes used as back plates, for example, because it yields the original colors after the view transform has been applied for display.
- When this option is checked, the View option appears and you can select a specific view transform to invert. Normally, this should be the same as the View set in the Color Management preferences.
- The Invert View option is available only when using OCIO v2 configuration files, and only when Color Space is set to a space in the Display family. In particular, it cannot be set when using the Maya-legacy configuration for compatibility with scenes created prior to Maya 2022.
Updated Content Browser icon
The Content Browser icon has been updated
The Content Browser icon is now found on the Poly Modeling shelf, where previously it has only been on the Sculpting shelf. In addition, the old Content Browser icon on the Sculpting shelf has been updated to use the same icon as the one used for the Poly Modeling shelf.
This icon also appears in the Windows menu, next to the Content Browser entry (Windows > Content Browser), where it has been moved from the Windows > General Editors menu.
Auto Normalization menu in the Component Editor
The Auto Normalization menu located at the bottom of the Component Editor
A new Auto Normalization menu has been added to the Component Editor to let you turn Normalization on or off, and the normalizeWeights attribute value of skinCluster nodes shown in the editor.
This way you can set the value of this attribute for all selected skinCluster nodes at the same time. See Component Editor menus and tabs for more information.
Updated Substance plug-in
Maya 2023 provides Substance 2.2.2 which uses a new Substance Engine 8.4.2, and includes enhancements to the Apply Workflow to Maps feature, support for Arnold 7.1.0.0, improvements to MEL scripting commands, and other bug fixes. For more information on the updates, visit http://www.autodesk.com/maya-substance-docs.
FBX Export options
Four new Include Options: History, Channels, Expressions, and Constraints have been added to the FBX Export options, exposing export features for input nodes that were previously available only through commands.
Hide the Home button
You can hide Maya’s Home button with a new preference and Environment Variable to prevent it from accidentally being clicked. Turn off Show Home icon in menu bar in the Home Screen section of the Interface Preferences or set the MAYA_NO_HOME_ICON Environment Variable to 1.
Note: Deactivating this option also suppresses crash recovery messages that appear with the Home icon. They are sent to the Script Editor instead.
Improved crash recovery experience
The crash recovery dialog has been improved, now providing a link to the crash recovery scene file as well as the crash log, and offering the option to immediately re-open Maya.
In addition, the list of Recent Files displayed at the bottom of the File Menu includes two new data points to help you recover crashed files:
- The name of last file before crash
- The name of the last file saved
MEL or Python icons on Script Editor tabs
A MEL or Python icon now appears on each Script Editor tab to denote its language, so you can differentiate between MEL and Python tabs without the need to select them.
Node Editor display improvements
A new option, Unit Conversion Nodes has been added to the Display menu in the Node Editor menu to let you hide the Unit Conversion Nodes in the Node Graph. Unit Conversion Nodes appear when you connect elements that are not the same unit type and can clutter the graph, disrupting node layouts.
The purple double arrows on the connector indicate the presence of a hidden unit conversion node. This setting is off by default, so Unit Conversion Nodes do not appear in the Node Editor graph view.
Rokoko available on Autodesk App Store
To use Rokoko in Maya, you can now download it from the Autodesk App Store.
Security updates
You can now customize where Maya exports the log for any security events in the Security Preferences. You can also specify whether or not to allow embedded MEL scripts to define global procedures.
A new MAYA_SECURE_OPTOUT environment variable lets you suppress security warning messages.
Simple pivot modification
You can use the Height Baseline attribute to quickly reposition the geometry pivot point. With Height Baseline, you can shift the geometry’s default center point directly either from the Creator Node in the Node Editor or from the shape tab in the Attribute Editor.
The default value of the Height Baseline attribute is 0, which is the geometry center. A value of -1 represents the bottom and +1 represents the top. See Change the Pivot Point for more.
Unlimited lights in the viewport
The maximum number of lights used when rendering a scene is now unlimited. View details in the Viewport 2.0 Options.
Maya 2022.2 Update
Deformation control
A new Scaling feature has been added to the Solidify deformer allowing you better control on resizing tagged geometry. You can use the Scale mode settings to determine how the deformation treats the geometry with Edge, Edge Global and Scale options. Normal Scale and Tangent Plane Scale fields let you apply uniform offsets to the scale effect.
Improved Application Home
The Recent File list in Application Home has been upgraded to allow you to locate a file’s location faster in the right-side menu.
New options in Script Editor
New options are added in the Attribute Editor for a more friendly experience. The new Save All Script Tabs option saves the script tabs open to a file so that they can be easily recovered. Show tabs and spaces visually displays tab and space indicators and view white spaces in the Script Editor.
Added USD support
Building on the first integration, USD is updated with stability fixes, performance improvements and improved UV and geometry export as well as viewport drawing of curves and cards.
- The geomSideness flag has been added to the exporter
- Restrictions on when prims can be grouped have been added
- The Proxyshape node now has shareable stage support
- Uneditable layers now show as locked in the layer editor
- Patch curves now draw as wireframe in default material mode
- Added support for the cards drawing mode in Vp2RenderDelegate
- Improved color management support
- General Stability fixes have been addressed across the plugin
Improved Bifrost
Bifrost is now more interactive, expressive, and robust than ever before. The latest update elevates the tool’s level of maturity with several usability improvements. You can make fluid port changes with virtual sliders, fix broken graphs with unknown nodes, and enjoy terminals now out of beta. Bifrost also introduces more expressive simulation graphs and a slew of FX enhancements, helping you create sophisticated simulations more easily.
Maya 2022.1
For technical details including What’s Fixed in this release, see the Maya 2022.1 Update Release Notes.
This release has a number of improvements that make Maya easier to use and learn, and introduces Mayabot, the protagonist of the new Interactive Getting Started tutorial and Quick Tour, to help you explore Maya’s interface and tools. Other additions include a new Application Home screen on startup, the return of the Viewcube for viewport navigation, and a Search function for quickly locating tools, objects, and commands. This update also includes enhancements to Component tags, deformers, and an updated Substance plug-in, among other improvements.
Application Home
Now when you start Maya, the first thing you see is a new hub called Application Home.
Interactive Getting Started
New to Maya? Try the new interactive Getting Started tutorial or Quick Tour to learn the most important things in a flash!
Search
Use Ctrl + F to search for tools, commands, or scene objects.
Migrating to Python 3
Maya is moving to Python 3! You can now begin converting your Python scripts and plug-ins to Python 3!
Mayabot rig
Say hello to Mayabot a free and fully-featured rig that takes advantage of a number of Maya features, such as:
- HumanIK rig that makes Mayabot 100% compatible with Rokoko motion capture data.
- MASH networks for the eyes, meaning you can easily change the pixel resolution, layout, color pattern, size, shape, and even put text and images on its face!
- Shape deformers driving the MASH network, allowing for smooth transitions between pre-made expressions, or easy creation of your own expressions.
- Arnold shaders that react realistically to light with detailed scratches and other imperfections.
- Offset Parent Matrix driving things like eye placement and scaling. This also allows you to detach Mayabot’s head and animate it independently!
- Asset file encapsulation that puts all the most useful controls on a single node, making animating Mayabot as easy as possible.
Don’t forget to catch Mayabot’s starring role in the brand new interactive tutorials too!
Build state machines right in Maya
Build interactive experiences like tutorials, tours, and more right in Maya. Maya’s new Stage node allows you to execute Python scripts in sequence using a state machine. Use this to create stepped experiences like interactive tutorials, demonstrations/walkthroughs, and even sequential tools.
Display 2D overlays on top of Maya
Display text, images, and even animated gifs on top of the Maya UI – great for showing users instructions or diagrams for custom tools and workflows!
Viewcube
The Viewcube has returned! Use it to more easily navigate the camera.
New Sweep Mesh option
A new option has been added to the Sweep Mesh tool to let you choose whether to use single creator node or multiple creator nodes per curve.
Additional Component Tag options
New functionality has been added for Component Tags to give you more control over tag membership:
Deformer updates
New falloffs, as well as options for Deformer falloff color ramps have been added to the Maya deformation arsenal.
Bifrost 2.2.1.2 plug-in
Maya 2022.1 provides Bifrost Extension for Maya version 2.2.1.2, which fixes some important evaluation issues in Bifrost.
Arnold for Maya 4.2.3 plug-in
Maya 2022.1 provides MtoA 4.2.3, which includes many important bug fixes and improvements. In addition, the Arnold RenderView has been upgraded to support OCIO 2.0.1.
For a complete list of fixes, see the Arnold for Maya release notes.
USD 0.10.0 plug-in
Maya 2022.1 provides USD Extension for Maya version 0.10.0, which includes many evaluation improvements and bug fixes. This also includes the features of version 0.9.0: Attribute Editor improvements (addition of metadata to prims), selection by kind, point instance selection, point snapping performance, as well as support for EXR textures and USDZ import. For a complete list of fixes and updates, see the USD for Maya release notes.
Remember that you can always download the latest version of USD by visiting the official Autodesk Maya USD GitHub repository.
What else is new?
The following additional improvements have been made.
New MEL or Python icon on Script Editor tabs
A MEL or Python icon now appears on each Script Editor tab to denote its language, so you can differentiate between MEL and Python tabs without the need to select them.
New FBX Export options
Four new Include Options: History, Channels, Expressions, and Constraints have been added to the FBX Export options, exposing export features for input nodes that were previously available only through commands.
Fan Out support
GPU Override now supports node geometry plug fan out connections. View details in the Parallel Maya Whitepaper.
Security updates
You can now customize where Maya exports the log for any security events it encounters via the Security Preferences. You can also set whether or not embedded MEL scripts are allowed to define global procedures.
Maya devkit and command updates
Several Maya APIs have been changed or added. Python code can now be generated from .ui files using pyside2-uic. And the duplicate and internalVar commands have new options.
See the What’s New in the 2022.1 Maya devkit for details and for more changes.
Evaluation Toolkit: deformerEvaluator improvements
The output from the Mesh information, Selected Nodes Status, and Clusters reports in the 06) GPU Override section of the Evaluation Toolkit has been improved so that the information is easier to read in the Script Editor.
Color Management
Maya now integrates OpenColorIO version 2.0.1 for color management. This version includes fixes for several bugs in the previous version.
In addition, there are some improvements to Maya’s UI for color management:
- If you are using a configuration file that assigns color spaces to families, the families are used to organize the color spaces into submenus in the Maya interface. In addition, the configuration files that are installed with Maya have been updated to make use of this feature — you can see the hierarchical menus on the Color Space attribute of File nodes, as well as elsewhere.
- In the Color Management preferences, you can click the drop-down arrow to the right of OCIO Config Path to quickly select the default configuration used for new scenes, the configuration used for legacy scenes, or the most recently used non-default configuration, in addition to browsing for files.
Updated Content Browser icon
The Content Browser icon has been updated and is now found on the Poly Modeling shelf, where previously it has only been on the Sculpting shelf. In addition, the old Content Browser icon on the Sculpting shelf has been updated to use the same icon as the one used for the Poly Modeling shelf.
This icon also appears in the Windows menu, next to the Content Browser entry (Windows > Content Browser), where it has been moved from the Windows > General Editors menu.
Maya 2022
Maya 2022 is all about helping artists work more efficiently and collaboratively. Marking the arrival of the USD plug-in for Maya, this release also delivers substantial updates to your favourite animation, rigging, and modeling tools in Maya. With new support for Python 3, new plug-ins from Bifrost and MtoA, there’s a lot to make both artists and technical leads happy.
USD Plug-in for Maya
Universal Scene Description (USD) support in Maya is now available: letting artists work seamlessly with USD in conjunction with Maya workflows.
Animation Ghosting
The Ghosting Editor lets you create images that echo the animation, letting you visualize movement and position of animated objects over time.
Component Tags for deformers
Component Tags are new node attributes that change the transformation and deformation of geometry.
Python 3
Maya on Windows and Linux now starts in Python 3 mode by default.
Bifrost 2.2.1.0 plug-in
Maya 2022 provides Bifrost 2.2.1.0 which includes new features, performance improvements, and bug fixes.
Graph Editor Improvements
The Graph Editor has had the following updates and improvements.
Sweep Mesh
Create a mesh from a simple curve shape using the new Sweep Mesh feature.
Security Preferences
You can now flag specific commands or plugin locations to be blocked when Maya loads them in the Preferences
Rokoko Motion Library Plug-in
The Rokoko plug-in allows you to simply drag and drop professionally made mocap assets into your scenes from the comfort of your own home.
Cached Playback improvements
Cached Playback has been updated to provide support for dynamics nodes and the Time Editor.
New Solidify deformer
The new Solidify deformer lets you create areas of geometry that appear more solid on deformed geometry, which lets you define rigid parts of a character’s clothes, such as buttons or a belt buckle.
OpenColorIO v2
Maya integrates OpenColorIO v2 for state-of-the-art color management.
Create VR for Maya
Create VR for Maya is an immersive conceptual design tool that empowers artists and designers to start their creative process directly in 3D.
Arnold for Maya 4.2.1 plug-in
Maya 2022 provides MtoA 4.2.1 which includes new features, performance improvements, and bug fixes.
Auto Tangent Types
New options for Auto Tangents in the Graph Editor offer an improved algorithm, giving animators better control and more predictable results.
Start up experience improvements
The start up / quitting experience has been improved with faster speeds, a more informative splash screen.
FAQs
Tutorials
Bifrost Bootcamp from Maya Learning Channel #mayamonday
Jason at the Maya Learning Channel introduces fields, a powerful and versatile tool in Bifrost. He covers all aspects of fields.
More...What is Universal Scene Description (USD)? #burningquestion
Universal Scene Description, or USD, is a scene encoding format for content creation that enables 3D applications to exchange assets.
More...Create Flowers with Bifrost in Maya #mayamonday
Markus P. demonstrates how to create flower blossom animation in Bifrost with Autodesk Maya. Create the petal animations and point scatter.
More...5 Weird Things Maya Does & How to Fix Them! #mayamonday
Monica from Academic Phoenix Plus created a useful guide that clearly explains how to fix some errors you may see while using Autodesk Maya.
More...How to Choose the Best 3D Application for Your Needs
If you are serious about creating truly amazing visuals in 3D, it's important to choose the right 3D application for your needs.
More...Chaos Phoenix: Deforming Fire and Liquid Simulators
In this tutorial, Yane from the Chaos 3D team explains how you can achieve different looks in Phoenix by playing with modifiers to deform volumes and particles. Plus, he also shows you how to shade mist for even more realistic results.
More...3D Product Modeling Tutorial in Autodesk Maya 2023
Learn to model a 3D Product in Maya 2023 with 3DWolf. In this tutorial, he models a fancy pump bottle with Maya 2023.
More...How To Manage Shots in Maya Using Camera Sequencer
Sarkamari talks about the Camera Sequencer Tool in Autodesk Maya, for laying out and managing camera shots.
More...Burning Question: How can I create medical animations?
Interested in becoming a medical animator? Learn to create 2D and 3D medical animations that help to visualize microscopic mysteries.
More...Get the Autodesk Maya Bonus Tools 2019-2023 #mayamonday
Download the free collection, Autodesk Maya Bonus Tools 2019-2023 from Autodesk. It includes a plethora of useful Maya scripts and plug-ins.
More...Waving Flag Tutorials Roundup
To celebrate Flag Day, we've collected a series of tutorials about animating waving flags in a variety of applications.
More...UV Mapping: Everything You NEED to know
UV Mapping is used in 3D modeling and allows users to use two-dimensional texture coordinates that correspond with the surface on a 3D model.
More...Camera Projection with Maya 2022 & Arnold #mayamonday
3D Models World shows how to convert a still image into animated Camera Projection using Autodesk Maya 2022 and Arnold. Maya Monday!
More...Bifrost Cloth Simulation #mayamonday
SimplyMaya has a new video on how to make cloth simulation that drapes realistically using Bifrost in Maya.
More...How to Smash the Learning Curve to Learn Software Faster
Have you been wanting to learn new software but don't know where to start? Don't have the time? Well, I'm here to help you make it happen.
More...Create Neon Letters with V-Ray and Maya
Carlos Alvarez Velazquez, 3D Graphic Designer and CGI Artist, explains how to use V-Ray and Maya to model and render neon letters.
More...SpeedLocator for Maya #mayamonday
Previs Artist Lukasz Biernat created SpeedLocator, a user-defined custom locator that "shows the speed of moving objects in Autodesk Maya."
More...Free Unreal Live Link for Maya #mayamonday
Unreal Live Link speeds up your workflow with this free tool for streaming data from Maya to Unreal Engine.
More...Maya Automatic Retopology #mayamonday
In this tutorial by 3DWolf called Maya Automatic Retopology, quickly learn to retopologize your mesh in Maya.
More...Maya Monday: Introduction to Bifrost Visual Programming Series
Bifrost artist Yingying Z teaches users about manipulating geometry in Maya using visual programming for Bifrost simulations.
More...Top 3 Maya 2022 3D Modeling New Features #mayamonday
JL Mussi tells you about his favorite new 3D modeling features in Maya 2022! Plus some great bonus tips for Maya users!
More...10 Tips for a Better Maya 2022 with Arvid Schneider #MayaMonday
Arvid Schneider explains how he configured his workspace, his preferences, and other settings to get the most from Maya 2022.
More...Animation Layers in Maya #MayaMonday
Harvey Newman explains how to use Animation Layers in Maya, a non-destructive way to create and blend multiple levels of animation in Maya.
More...Sheen or Velvet Shader in Maya and Arnold #mayamonday
ReimagineFx walks you through making a spooky ghost with a purple sheen by using the Velvet Shader in Maya and Arnold Renderer.
More...The Art of V-Ray: Mastering the V-Ray Renderer in Autodesk Maya
Rusty Hazelden helps you master V-Ray Next for Maya in the form of a paint commercial with colorful twisting paint splashes. He dissects a series of shots, explaining the process.
More...The Video Game Industry With Kirie Quackenbush & Karl Koehle
Today GVSU Film/Video Alum is talking with Kirie Quackenbush and Karl Koehle, Alums that both work in the video game industry. Watch live. Ask questions!
More...Bifrost Visual Programming Masterclass for Autodesk Maya
Watch the Bifrost Visual Programming Masterclass from The Maya Learning Channel. Create a disintegration effect on production assets...
More...Set Up Maya To Flip Your Keys #mayamonday
Brian Horgan has a tutorial about how he set up Maya to flip your keys and do things a little differently. In the video, he explains it all.
More...Maya Monday: Surface 2.0, The realistic ARKit experience
Arvid Schneider created an iOS app called Surface 2.0, a Surface Database app. It's made for both pros and newer users to Maya.
More...Maya Monday: More about Bifrost for Autodesk Maya
Bifrost, the visual programming environment in Maya, is powerful. Learn to use it with this series of tutorials from Autodesk.
More...Maya Monday: Corrective Joint Based Rigs
Kiel Figgins, the Lead Animator at Industrial Light & Magic Anim Rigs, shares his collection of Corrective Joint Based Rigs.
More...Maya Monday: Destructing Elements with Pulldownit
Envato’s CGI Tuts+ series from Uriel Deveaud, Destructing Elements in Maya With PullDownIt, a dynamics solver that can simulate fractures and cracks.
More...Maya Monday: Blood Flow with MASH in Maya 2020
This tutorial from 3D Splanchnic explains how to animate blood flow through veins with Maya 2020. There are other medical tutorials here as well.
More...Best of 2019: The Top 10 Tutorials at Toolfarm.com
According to our website stats, these were the Top 10 Tutorials of 2019. It's interesting that most are technical, not about VFX.
More...Maya Monday: Make Maya Go Faster #MayaMonday
Here are some fantastic tips to make Maya go faster with these easy tips from Malcolm Andrieshy and the Maya Learning Channel.
More...Maya Monday: Ultra Short Maya Modeling Tutorial #mayamonday
In this Ultra Short Maya Modeling tutorial, Mike Hermes explains how to use a pizza pie icon to regulate the steps of your parameter adjustments.
More...Maya Monday: Create Hair and Fur with Maya, XGen, and More... Plus Freebies
Learn about creating hair / fur with Maya using XGen, and working with V-Ray Next for Maya and Corona Renderer in Maya. Get Shave and a Haircut for free!
More...Make a Jurassic World Dinosaur in Maya + Pixologic™ ZBrush® #MayaMonday
Soni Kumari at CG Tuts has put together an amazing 11 part series on making a hulking, bipedal T-Rex dinosaur with Maya and ZBrush. For fun, I've thrown in some interesting T-Rex facts along the way.
More...Substance Painter Texturing - Vintage Theater Chair #mayamonday
Brent Le Blanc shows you how to use Substance Painter texturing of a Vintage Theater Chair for film and games. He uses advanced procedural techniques.
More...Why Your 3D Renders Look Fake - 5 Tips
Designer Darren Thomas explains why your 3D renders look fake and offers 5 tips to improve realism. Perfection is your enemy, and technology will only get you so far, as real life is messy and imperfect.
More...Arnold + Maya Tutorial Round Up #MayaMonday
Arnold + Maya go together like chips and salsa, or rice and beans! Today we're rounding up some tutorials for Arnold and Maya.
More...The Common USD Plug-in for Maya #MayaMonday
Autodesk is working with Animal Logic, Luma Pictures, and Pixar to combine all the Maya USD projects into a common USD integration in Maya. Coming soon!
More...The Bifrost Graph Editor: Tutorial Roundup #MayaMonday
Bifrost Graph, new for Maya 2018+, is "a portable, visual, node-based way to design, build, and test custom behavior". Download it for free.
More...Crystal or Glass Shaders for Maya #mayamonday
Arvid Schneider is talking about how to create a realistic looking crystal using procedural techniques, with focus on the unique challenges he comes across.
More...RealFlow | Maya Overview videos #tutorialtuesday
RealFlow | Maya is one of the products currently on sale. Next Limit has several quick videos to walk you through some of the features in RealFlow | Maya.
More...Maya Monday: V-Ray Next for Maya Tutorials
V-Ray Next for Maya Tutorials! V-Ray Next for Maya brings speed, quality, power, creative control and smart integrations to your workflow.
More...Hidden Maya Tricks to Speed Up Your Workflow #MayaMonday
These are not necessarily hidden but often overlooked by artists, even those artists who have been using Maya for years. Get out your notebooks and pens!
More...Maya Monday: Autodesk 2019 M&E Showreel
This week, we're showing the most recent Autodesk 2019 M&E Showreel, instead of the usual tutorial or Maya feature walkthrough.
More...Maya Monday: Maya Freebies Galore, including Scripts, Tools, and more
Here are some great Maya Freebies including free rigs, scripts, and tools... all for your modeling pleasure. Everyone likes free stuff, right?
More...Pixar RenderMan 5-Part Tutorial Series
Visual effects artist Rusty Hazelden has released an in-depth 5 part RenderMan tutorial series on YouTube. The Art of RenderMan Volume 1 provides an introduction to Pixar's RenderMan for Maya.
More...Tutorial: Maya: The Art of NURBS Modeling Volume 1-5
Visual effects artist Rusty Hazelden has recently released a 5 part tutorial series on “The Art of NURBS Modeling” in Autodesk Maya. This series dives deep into curves, surfaces, keeping objects organized, efficient NURBS modeling, time-saving techniques and more.
More...Maya Monday: More Redshift and Maya
A couple of weeks ago we featured a tutorial series from the Redshift channel about working with Redshift and Maya. We're expanding on this and moving onto other tutorials out there.
More...Redshift for Beginners - Interior Lighting with Redshift and Maya
Jesus Fernandez walks you through some basic steps to light an interior scene using Redshift and Autodesk Maya.
More...Maya Monday: Texturing a Fire Hydrant with Substance Designer and Maya
This week on Maya Monday we’re featuring some tutorials by Arvid Schneider about creating a realistic paint, brass, and rust texture with Substance Designer. He has it split into 4 tutorials, because it’s long, These first 4 tutorials are essentially part 1, and part 2 will talk about the shader and rendering it with Arnold in Maya. The fire hydrant model available on Arvid’s patron page and info about that is in the first video.
More...Maya Monday: Redshift and Maya, part 3
Redshift has several tutorials on working with Redshift in Maya. We’ve featured these tutorials for the past two weeks and here is part 3, the final, for now.
More...Maya Monday: Redshift and Maya, part 2
Redshift has several tutorials on working with Redshift in Maya. Here is the second batch from their YouTube Channel to get you started.
More...How to Work With Displacements in Redshift Maya
Saul Espinosa, a Matte Painter and Environmental Artist, walks you through everything you need to know about working with displacements in Maya with the Redshift plugin.
More...RealFlow | Maya: Installation Tutorial, Plus Next Limit Release Information
High-end Multi-physics Simulation Inside Autodesk Maya®. We’ve also included a RealFlow | Maya: Installation video if you want to try the demo.
More...Maya Monday: Redshift and Maya, part 1
Redshift has several tutorials on working with Redshift in Maya. Here are a few tutorials from their YouTube Channel to get you started.
More...WiFi Signal from MASH
Here's another from Lee at Maya Short Rounds. The second tutorial on the page was featured on Maya Monday.
More...Maya 2017 MASH Tutorial - Scatter balloons and vertex color in Arnold
Edge-CGI 3D Tutorials and more! shows you how to scatter colors around a huge group of balloons. You can recreate Up!
More...Maya + Python
Knowing a bit of Python scripting and how to use Python scripts can really help your workflow in Maya. Here are a few resources for you.
More...Procedural Shading with Maya & V-Ray
Michael Cauchi takes you through a 9 step process to using V-Ray and Maya to generate reusable assets and perfect your texturing workflow in Maya.
More...Maya XGen and Interactive Grooming Tutorial Roundup
Maya 2017 Update 3 brought the interactive grooming tools and they’re really powerful! With XGen, you can create natural looking hair and animal fur. Here are some overviews and examples of what XGen Interactive grooming can do.
More...5 Tutorials about Creating Glass in Maya with Arnold’s aiStandardSurface
There have been multiple times in my career when I’ve been asked to create glass, whether it be for a product video, or for motion graphics with a logo in glass, or for visual effects where I’m turning a person into glass. The important thing is to make the reflections look natural.
More...Medical Animations & Tutorials Roundup for Maya, Cinema 4D, After Effects
The human body is still such an enigma and there are so many technical, yet beautiful, 2D and 3D animations that help to visualize those microscopic mysteries. We had a question about some methods of creating cells and other microscopic elements. First, we have some gorgeous examples to inspire you, followed by a few tutorials for various host applications.
More...How Physically Based Rendering Shaders Work
There are several tutorials here. In the first, Meghdad Asadi breaking down how Physically Based Rendering shaders (PBR) work in a render engine. The second is an excerpt from the Maya 2018 Essential Training from Linkedin Learning. In the third, Arvid Schneider talks about setting up shaders in Arnold.
More...8 Ultra Useful Maya Tips for Beginners, in Under 4 Minutes
I’ve been learning Maya for about a year now, but I’ve still barely scratched the surface. If you’re in the same boat, watch this quick video and file these away in your head. Plus, check out a full beginners guide that goes along with the video. Every new Maya user needs to see this!
More...Rendering in Maya
This page contains several tutorials about installing Arnold Render, render settings you should use, saving the render and things like ray depth, viewport settings, and anti-aliasing.
More...Modeling Basics in Maya 2018
Spicer McLeroy's tutorial. This is included in Maya Monday: Modeling Basics in 2018, so scroll down the page to the last tutorial to watch.
More...Autodesk Maya 2018 - Soda Can Tutorial
If you're new to Maya, here's a quick tutorial to get your started on modeling a soda can. This is in the article, Maya Monday: Modeling Basics in 2018. Scroll down to the 4th video to watch.
More...How to model a 3D Pillow in Maya 2018 in 5 minutes
Mike Hermes redoes an old video with Maya 2018 and you can't get much faster and easier than this! This is in a Maya Monday feature on Modeling in Maya 2018. Scroll down to the third video to watch.
More...Maya 2018: Comprehensive Review of Modeling Improvements
My Oh Maya dives a bit deeper into Modeling improvements. Watch and learn. Scroll down the page to the second video.
More...Modeling Basics in 2018
Sculpting, Quad Draw, Bridge with Symmetry, Curve Warp Deformer, MASH, and much more are covered in these videos that will help you get acquainted with some of the modeling features in 2018. There are also a couple of beginner tutorials for those of you who are new to Maya.
More...Turn a 2D Image into a 3D Mesh in Maya
PlatinumRyan explains this simple process of converting a flat image into a 3 dimensional mesh.
More...Understanding Depth Of Field in Arnold and Maya
This is a free excerpt from a course from Mograph Plus and Kamel Khezri. Learn about how to set up Depth of Field properly in Maya and Arnold.
More...ZBrush Sculpting for Maya Users
ZBrush Sculpting for Maya Users with Create3dcharacters.com. Create a cute dragon with Pixologic™ ZBrush® and learn the ZBrush interface.
More...How to make Snowy Object in Maya
How to make Snowy Object in Maya - This tutorial is originally in Korean but is great quality so don't fear a language barrier. It's subtitled in English.
More...Maya Snow Tutorial
This one, from 3DYee Modeling and 3D Tutorials, has no voice over so follow along visually.
More...MtoA 206 | Snow and Ice | Material series using Arnold 5 with Maya 2018
Arvid Schneider puts out some fantastic Maya tutorials and this one seems especially seasonally appropriate, as I look out my window. He explains how to set up a realistic looking snow shader with Maya and Arnold.
More...The New MASH Dynamics Node in Maya 2018, Part 3
This is the last in our series on the brand new MASH Dynamics Node in the latest Maya release, which came out at the end of July. We’re featuring the last 4 videos from Ian Water’s great series.
More...The New MASH Dynamics Node in Maya 2018, Part 2
This tutorial is part 2 of our series on the new Dynamics Node in MASH in Maya 2018. Ian Waters has a great series that we’re showcasing.
More...The New MASH Dynamics Node in Maya 2018
There are some great new motion graphics features in Maya 2018 including new MASH Nodes, such as MASH Dynamics Node, MASH World Node, and the MASH Placer Node. We’re going to focus on the MASH Dynamics Node for the next couple of weeks.
More...The New UV Editor in Maya 2018
If you're new to 3D and are unfamiliar with UVs, Autodesk's Knowledge Network, MyOhMaya, and others explain how to use them in Maya 2018.
More...Tutorial #6 - Curvature Node & Layering Noise by Saul Espinos
In the video, he references the Redshift 2 Maya - Tutorial #6 - Curvature Node & Layering Noise by Saul Espinosa. It is below.
More...Maya Monday: The New MASH Dynamics Node in Maya 2018, Part 2
Happy Eclipse Day! I’m on a trip now viewing the eclipse in Totality, so I’ve queued this one up for you. It’s part 2 of our series on the new Dynamics Node in MASH in Maya 2018. Ian Waters has a great series that we’re showcasing.
More...Creating Realistic Human Skin with Maya and Arnold 5
Arvid Schneider explains how to set up a lifelike human skin shader with the aiStandardSurface shader, and it’s a lot easier than you may think!
More...Brain Cells
Motionsquared has a breat tutorial on creating brain cells in Cinema 4D. I used this tutorial in a project last year. Super useful tutorial. Scroll to the end of the page for the tutorials.
More...Where Did Arnold Go?
I ran into a little problem after updating to Maya 2017. Arnold Standard Shader was missing! If this happens to you, this is an easy fix!
More...Live Tutorial: Working with Arnold 5
Arvid Schneider explains lighting and shading a scene from start to finish with Arnold 5. "I am using an arnold learning scene with a fishbowl. Creating shaders and mixing them together."
More...Arnold Render 5 tips and tricks for faster renders
John Paul Giancarlo, M&E Technical Specialist for South Europe, based in Barcelona, gives some tips on using Arnold for faster renders and some new features. The video lists what's covered exactly.
More...4 Legged Animals: Quadruped Locomotion Tutorial
So, what if you're animating a 4 legged critter instead of a bi-ped? It's double the fun! Felix Sputnik explains how to animate a quadruped. [Via Lester Banks]
More...Female Walk Cycle - Workflow Tutorial
Another from Chiara Porri, this time focusing on the walk cycle of the female of the species. [Via Lester Banks]
More...Run Cycle Tips
Chiara Porri has been an animator for over a decade and in this video she gives some great advice on creating a run cycle in Maya. She talks about the style and build of the character and how it pertains to the run cycle. [Via Lester Banks]
More...A Common Mistake when Animating Walkcycles in Maya
Brian Horgan tells you what NOT to do when animating walk cycles. This is extremely useful information, especially if you're a beginner. [Via Lester Banks]
More...Animation for Videogames tutorial: Creating a character animation set in Maya
This is the third part of a series of tutorials by James Marijeanne. He talks about the pre-vis process, which is extremely important in the video game development process. Then he sets up run and walk cycles for our new character. [Via Lester Banks]
More...Creating a Walk Cycle in Maya
In 2015 I wrote an article about how to create a walk cycle with several tutorials and examples, plus, some animals, not just people! This article is a follow up, focused on Maya. Yes, we missed Maya Monday due to the holiday yesterday, but we’ll do it like the garbage man, and bump things back a day!
More...IK: Better Managing Pole Vectors on an IK Chain in Maya
This is another via Lester Banks and is from the rigging artist Giovanna Coutinho and she talks about how to set up an ideal joint chain for IK handles.
More...Character Animation: An Alternative Way to Animate a Foot Roll
Brian Horgan put together this informative tutorial and says, "A look at how the FootRoll attribute on IK leg controls can sometimes trip us up when animating walks and runs.. and an alternative approach which can give cleaner results in some cases. I also demonstrate how I like to clean things up to remove the dreaded knee pop."
More...IK: Rigging a Bird with IK Handles and Curves in Maya 2016
From Mike Hermes: "In this Maya 2016 rigging tutorial video I will show you how to create a simple bird rig including joints, IK handles and nurbs control curves to allow you to animate your model."
More...Character modeling: Bat, parts 1 and 2
Part 1 is about the concept art and part 2 is modeling.
More...Quick Rigging and Skinning a Character in Maya 2017
From 3D Tutorials: "CGI 3D Tutorials : Quick Rigging and Skinning a Character in Maya 2017. This tutorial shows you how to create a basic character rig for a game or background character in just a few clicks."
More...How To Make A 2D Animation Or Cartoon in Maya
From TunnelvizionTV: "In this Maya 2017 tutorial I show you how you can use Maya to create a 2d animation or cartoon. You will need Adobe Photoshop or other image editing software and Autodesk Maya."
More...Maya 2017: Time Editor
Autodesk's Sr. Maya Technical Specialist Steven Roselle explains how to create cycles and use the timing workflow features of the Time Editor in Maya 2017 from My Oh Maya. This is included at Maya Monday: Time Editor.
More...Maya’s Animation Evolution
This video took place at a Vision Series event and features Warren Trezevant, formerly of Pixar and now theAnimation Product Manager for Maya, and Daryl Obert, Technical Marketing Manager of Maya, explain some of the exciting changes in animation tools in Maya 2017. They talk about both the Time Editor and the Graph Editor, which was overhauled and has GPU acceleration. Included in Maya Monday: Time Editor
More...Maya: Time Editor | Move data between characters
Learn how to copy and move motion data between to Human IK characters using Maya’s Time Editor. In this video, George takes the motion of one character and remaps it to another from within the Time Editor. He talks about namespaces and how to make sure your animation curves transfer properly. Tutorial from LinkedIn Solutions and featured in Maya Monday: Time Editor
More...Maya: Time Editor | Ghosting clips
Gain knowledge and understand how to work with ghosting in Maya’s new Time Editor. Ghosting allows you to see a superimposed image of a character or object within a viewport. This is essential when trying to match poses and animation clips. George shows how to ghost multiple clips for character animation. Tutorial from LinkedIn Solutions. This tutorial was included with Maya Monday: Time Editor article.
More...Non-Destructive Animation Editing: Basic setup and single clip editing
In this movie, we show you how to use Maya's Time Editor to save and edit animation clips non-destructively. Included in Maya Monday: Time Editor article.
More...Maya LT 2017 – Time Editor animation tool
Here's a quick overview of the Time Editor in Maya LT 2017.
More...Medical Animation Tutorial: Create Villi using Maya 2017 MASH Motion Graphics
In this tutorial, Emily McDougall shows you a quick and easy way to create animated villi using Maya 2017 and the MASH toolset.This is suitable for people with a basic knowledge of Maya. Featured in Maya Monday: Maya for Motion Graphics and MASH.
More...Maya: Motion Graphics Workflow with MASH | MASH - The Time Node
"In this movie, Scott explains the MASH Time node. The Time node is a core component of a MASH network and gets created automatically when you create a MASH network. The Time node allows for animation looping and offsetting to create ordered or randomly influenced timing offsets for animated elements that are being distributed and replicated in the MASH network." Featured in Maya Monday: Maya for Motion Graphics and MASH.
More...Maya 2016 Extension 2 New Features | Introduction to MASH networks
This one is from LinkedIn Learning Solutions. They actually have several tutorials on YouTube on the topic of Maya and MASH. Featured in Maya Monday: Maya for Motion Graphics and MASH.
More...Maya MASH from Ian Waters
Ian currently has 35 tutorials to check out on the topic of Maya and MASH. See all of his videos here. Featured in Maya Monday: Maya for Motion Graphics and MASH.
More...Maya 2017 - Intro to MASH
An introduction for beginners to MASH. A new toolset in Maya 2017 for making motion graphics and cool effects. Featured in Maya Monday: Maya for Motion Graphics and MASH
More...Autodesk Maya 2017 Mash Overview
An overview of MASH from the Motion Graphics Toolkit in Maya 2017. Featured in Maya Monday: Maya for Motion Graphics and MASH.
More...Maya 2017 - Low Polygon Modeling - Parts 1 & 2
This covers tutorial covers so much including loop and ring selections; shortcuts like the G key to repeat the last command; components like Bridge, Extrude, and Bevel; Extract; Outliner; and so much more. The second part of low polygon modeling. take the lighthouse from last week and learn to add additional detail with more tools and kit bashing. Featured in Maya Monday: Learning to Model in Maya.
More...Maya Hotkey Issue Solved
There's an issue in Maya 2017 that customized hotkeys will disappear each time Maya is launched, setting it back to the default.Silver Imagine has a video explaining how to fix this issue, which is driving some users bananas. Featured in Maya Monday: Hotkeys, Customization, and Fixing Bugs.
More...Customize Hotkeys for Animators [Maya]
N.Droo's videos are very useful to me as a beginning Maya user. In this video, he explains how to customize your hotkeys and transfer the hotkeys to other Maya installs or users. He does say that this hotkey setup is good for animators, but if you're modeling or rigging, you might want a different setup. Download an image of N.Droo's Animation Hotkey setup for Maya.
More...Maya Quick Tips - Toolbox hotkeys and hidden menus
This movie shows you some techniques to speed up your interactions with the Toolbox in Maya. Featured in Maya Monday: Hotkeys, Customization, and Fixing Bugs.
More...Maya 2017 Tutorial | #05 Hotbox & Marking
In this video, we'll see what is hotbox and marking menu and how to use them in Maya 2017. Featured in Maya Monday: Opening Maya For the First Time
More...Maya 2017 Tutorial | #04 Navigation
Learn to navigate around Maya 2017. Featured in Maya Monday: Opening Maya For the First Time.
More...Maya 2017 Tutorial | #02 Projects
In this video, learn what projects are in Maya and how to use them. Featured in Maya Monday: Opening Maya For the First Time.
More...Maya 2017 Tutorial | #01 Interface
A video from Vito Tutors to explain the Maya 2017 Interface. Featured in Maya Monday: Opening Maya For the First Time.
More...Maya Interface Tour
This movie gives you a basic overview of the various parts of the Maya user interface. Featured in the article Maya Monday: Opening Maya For the First Time.
More...Maya 2017 - Your first day in Maya
This tutorial explains how to maneuver in Maya 2017, how to make primitives and text, and learn about the major interface sections of Maya 2017. There are new features like the Arnold renderer from Solidangle that are also covered in this video. This was featured in Maya Monday: Opening Maya For the First Time.
More...Maya Tutorial for Beginners 2016 | 2017
Get comfy with the new tools and user interface items in Maya 2016 or 2017. Learn how to create polygon and texture models, and light a scene, then finally how to render your scene. Featured in Maya Monday: Opening Maya For the First Time
More...Quick Rigging and Skinning a character
This is slightly bit more advanced and also covers skinning but is very clear and easy to follow.
More...Quick Rig from My Oh Maya
Stephen Roselle of My Oh Maya talks about Quick Rig which is in the HumanIK window. One click, what can be easier!
More...Maya 2016 Extension 2: Easier Character Creation
Available in Maya 2016 Extension 2, new tools like Quick Rig along with big enhancements to Shape Authoring help make character creation easier than ever.
More...Maya Quick Rig
The new Quick Rig makes it easier than ever for novice animators to create a character rig. The new tool can generate a bipedal rig that is prepared with the constraints of the HumanIK animation system, and approximate the placement of the rig within the geometry of a target character. The user can make the placement of the rig more accurate by manually placing and adjusting markers within their character geometry. The Quick Rig tool also provides basic mesh skinning, further helping to facilitate the rigging and animation processes.
More...Cut Smooth Holes Without Boolean in Maya Easy in Maya
In this video, 3DGameArt shows Maya users the method of cutting smooth holes in your mesh without boolean easily. Cutting holes is so important when modeling. Featured in the article, Maya Monday: 5 Modeling Tutorials for Beginners
More...Polygon Modeling a Vase in Maya
A quick tutorial explaining how to model a basic vase using polygon primitives.This was featured in Maya Monday: 5 Modeling Tutorials for Beginners.
More...Creating A Temple In Maya, A Basic Modeling Workflow
In this Envato+ tutorial, Sansar Tripathi explains how to build a massive temple in Maya, perfect for newbies.
More...Easy Hand Modeling Tutorial in Maya
Another from Alex Cheparev, check out this very simple hand modeling workflow. Alex uses box modeling and simple polygon tools within Maya 2016. This was featured with Maya Monday: 5 Modeling Tutorials for Beginners.
More...Maya Monday: mental ray vs. Arnold for Maya + Other Renderers
In Maya 2017, Autodesk has replaced NVIDIA’s mental ray with Arnold for Maya software. mental ray is no longer being licensed by Autodesk. This is really only a problem if you’re opening older projects or want to follow an older tutorial that uses it.
More...Tutorial: Maya Basics - Episodes 1-8
Learn the basics of working with Autodesk Maya 2017 from Paul Hatton, in this 8 part series on 3DTotal.com, as he explains the UI, modeling, animation, lighting and more.
More...How To Compile Maya Plug-ins Across Multiple Versions & Platforms
Chad Vernon answers the question “How do I compile Maya plug-ins across platforms.”
More...Autodesk Maya Soccer ball and Basketball Modeling
Here’s a few tutorials on creating different sports balls in Maya.
More...Dynamic Worms in Maya
This is the last one for this tutorial Tuesday. Simulate a bunch of worms in Autodesk Maya from noorvfx.com.
More...
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