Maya 2016 Extension 2 Service Pack 1?

Autodesk has released its annual spring update to Maya – only in a pause with convention, the new release it announced at NAB this year was not Maya 2017, but Maya 2016 Extension 2.

The subscriber-but update adds a complete new motion graphics toolset derived from Mainframe Due north's old Mash improver, new render direction and graphic symbol rigging options, and updates to Bifrost and XGen.

The Extension release is one of several announcements made by Autodesk at NAB 2016, along with Flame 2017 and 3ds Max 2017, and its conquering of Solid Angle, developer of the Arnold renderer.

New move graphics toolset
The biggest single addition in Maya 2016 Extension 2 is the new motion graphics toolset, derived from Mainframe North's Mash add-on, which Autodesk caused last September.

Mash provided a set of 27 nodes that could exist 'daisy chained' together to generate a huge range of customisable motion graphics effects, controllable from both Maya's Attribute and Node Editors.

Autodesk'due south initial integration makes a number of UI changes, ~~but doesn't add any new functionality~~.

Updated 27 Apr: Mainframe Northward Md Chris Hardcastle has been in impact to say that in that location are new features in the integrated version of the toolset. Meet them in action here, or lookout the video in the comments below.

The visitor'south managing director of industry marketing, Marc Hamaker, described the toolset equally a "pretty nice outset-to-cease workflow" suitable for "movement graphics and a whole lot more", including titles and UI design.

According to Hamaker, the tools are intended to be accessible to artists who don't primarily piece of work in 3D.

"Nosotros tried to expect at what people do in motion graphics and reflect that," he said. "[The toolset] isn't as deep as some out there for move graphics, just it's a sign of where we're taking this."

Improve shot-based render management for VFX artists
Another pregnant new feature in Extension 2 is the new return-management system, designed to simplify the procedure of setting upwardly shot-based overrides for the lighting and shading in a scene during VFX work.

Artists tin group scene assets into Collections, either manually or by writing expressions based on nugget names. Collections tin can then be assigned to render layers and toggled on and off at will

A templating system enables users to consign complex scene setups as JSON files that can be shared with other artists, or reused between productions.

Improved character rigging workflow
In add-on, the update adds a number of character rigging features previously rolled out in Maya LT, the cut-down version of Maya intended for indie game artists.

Those include a new blendshape workflow and a semi-automated Quick Rig tool based on the HumanIK solver. We discussed them in our original story on Maya LT 2016 Extension three, so nosotros won't cover them here.

At that place's likewise a new Pose Infinite Deformer, used to gear up full-body corrective shapes to prepare rigging artefacts in graphic symbol animations, which you can see in action at around 03:ten in the video above.

120419_Maya2016Ext2_Bifrost

Updates to Bifrost and XGen
Other changes in Maya 2016 Extension ii include updates to two of the software'south key furnishings toolsets: the Bifrost fluid simulator and the XGen instancing arrangement.

Bifrost'southward new adaptive solver (shown above) enables the level of particular in a simulation to vary, enabling artists to choose which parts of a sim are calculated in high detail.

This new 'deep adaptive fluid simulation' workflow should help reduce the computational resources required for a sim while preserving visual quality: for case, by only simulating the surface of a body of water in detail.

In addition, XGen can now handle hair as cards rather than private strands, as well reducing the computational resources required: useful for background characters in videogames, for example.

Sadly, there don't seem to be videos of either new feature in action, although you tin read a scrap more almost them, plus the new "high-accuracy viscosity" in Bifrost, on the Maya product website.

Further improvements to viewport rig evaluation and symmetry operations
Evaluation of complex character rigs in the viewport – a focus of the original Maya 2016 release – has been farther improved in Extension 2.

Again, in that location doesn't seem to be a video, merely the product website lists the primal features, including improved describe performance on models composed of multiple meshes, and GPU-accelerated deformation beingness on past default.

Parallel rig evaluation also now supports dynamics generated procedurally past Maya's Nucleus framework.

The update besides enhances symmetry modelling and UV workflow. The website doesn't go into detail most how, only we assume they're the same changes made in Maya LT 2016 Extension 3.

A lot for an Extension release, less so for an almanac update
All in all, at that place'south a lot in Maya 2016 Extension 2 for an acting release: the motion graphics tools lonely used to sell for about $150 when they were a 3rd-party add-on.

However, the fact that this is the commencement time in many years that Maya hasn't received a full annual update in the jump may worry some users.

Co-ordinate to Marc Hamaker, Autodesk is "transitioning away" from a rigid annual release schedule, which suggests that in that location may still exist a bigger update coming later this twelvemonth.

However, it probably won't reassure anyone who worries that the firm's movement to subscription-only licensing will reduce the pace of innovation, given that users tin now no longer skip updates they experience don't do good them.

Pricing and availability
Maya 2016 Extension 2 is bachelor now for Windows 7+, Mac Bone X 10.9.5+ and RHEL half-dozen.5 WS and CentOS vi.5 Linux. Subscription pricing remains unchanged at $185/month, $460/quarter or $one,470/year.

Read more than about the new features in Maya 2016 Extension two on the production website

Tags: adaptive solver, animation, autodesk, Bifrost, blendshape workflow, character rigging, deep adaptive fluid simulation, Extension 2, hair cards, Mainframe North, Brew, Maya 2016, Maya 2016 Extension two, Maya LT, motion graphics, NAB 2016, new features, parallel rig evaluation, operation, Pose Space Deformer, toll, Quick Rig, release appointment, render management, shape editor, shot-based override, speed, symmetry modeling, UV editing, viewport rig evaluation, viscosity, XGen