Autodesk Packs Artist-Driven Features into Maya 2020 Release

Autodesk this month has announced the release of Autodesk Maya 2020. The latest release of one of the company’s flagship software packages for 3D artists across a range of industries, packs powerful new features.

New in Maya 2020

The new release builds on powerful animation features introduced in Maya 2019 and adds more than 60 new updates animators will notice in their first day-to-day work. The release also includes Autodesk Arnold 6, which can be used for production rendering on both the CPU and GPU, as well as significant performance enhancements and new simulation features in Bifrost, the visual programming language in Maya.

Maya 2020 with new Rivet Command screen shot.

“As the demand for entertainment content continues to explode, artists need tools that augment the creative process, enabling them to work faster and put their best creative foot forward. Building features driven by community feedback and making sure artists at every stage of production are able to work efficiently have been development priorities for Maya 2020,” said Chris Vienneau, senior director, Media & Entertainment products, Autodesk. “This latest update is designed to help artists carry out their vision with greater speed, while also making the creative process more fun and engaging.”

Here are some of the top new features:

• Over 60 animation features and updates to the graph editor and time slider.
• Cached Playback: Experience faster animation playback and more predictable results with new preview modes, layered dynamics caching, and more efficient caching of image planes.
• Animation bookmarks: Mark, organize, and navigate through specific events in time and frame playback ranges.
• Arnold GPU: Access Arnold 6 for production rendering on the CPU and GPU. 
• Bifrost for Maya: Significant performance improvements, Cached Playback support, and new MPM cloth constraints bring even more power to the visual programming environment.
• Viewport improvements: Interact with and select dense geometry or a large number of smaller meshes faster in the viewport and UV editors.
• Modeling enhancements: Spend more time modeling and less time cleaning up your models, with new Remesh and Retopologize features. 
• Rigging improvements: Simplify rig and character TD work with matrix-driven workflows, nodes for precisely tracking positions on deforming geometry, and a new GPU-accelerated wrap deformer.

Maya 2020 is now available as a standalone subscription or with a collection of end-to-end creative tools within the Autodesk Media & Entertainment Collection. For more information and pricing, visit: https://www.autodesk.com/products/maya/overview.