New workflows unveiled for Autodesk Media & Entertainment portfolio

It’s no secret that thecreativebar continues to rise for VFX and animationstudios. Globalaudiences expectamazing visual effects every time they watch TV,play a game, or explore the metaverse. Asthe need for truly immersive content grows,we’re committed to unlocking new levels of collaboration, creativity, and efficiency for artists and studios.

We have our eyes onstreamliningpost–production and games pipelines. Updates toour media and entertainment portfolio, including AutodeskMaya, 3ds Max, Bifrost, and Arnold, furtheropenstandards and bolsterartist-driven animation, modeling, and simulation workflows. They also boost performance with support forApple Silicon. On top of that,we’re collaborating with Adobe tobuild a material standard, and with Microsoft tounveil a beta version of AI-powered Maya Assist.  

“Whetherthey’re working on the next big blockbuster, streaming content, or games, our customers use a lot of different tools to get productions out the door. It’s a top priority for us at Autodesk to help connect their workflows, so they can work nimbly and efficiently across teams and projects,” said Diana Colella, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “That’s why we’ve focused our development efforts on integrating open standards like USD, LookDevX, and OCIO across our tools. We’re excited to continue on this path, building deeper connections between our solutions and third party tools, so that our customers have truly connected workflows for collaboration.”

Growing our open standards ecosystem

Across tools, we continue to integrate open standards that accelerate and streamline the flow of data between people, teams, and software at studios.  

• LookDevX, a new agnostic material editor in Maya, standardizes material workflows, allowing artists to create complex shading networksthat can be shared freely and accurately throughout studio pipelines. With a modern, node-based environment, this enables artists to author a variety of materials like USDShade, Material X, and Arnold that can then be used by other artists across multiple projects. 
• We continue to integrate powerful USD workflows across our portfolio, making it easier to move data through the post-production pipeline. 

Powerful modelingand color managementcapabilitiescome to3ds Max  

We’re expanding the robust modeling toolset in 3ds Max with fast, fluid, and fun workflows for artists. 

• A new Boolean modifier offers a modern and intuitive way to produce clean geometry, and updates to the Array modifier help create beautiful, nature-like scenes, procedurally. 
• With effective color management tools built around the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) and OpenColorIO (OCIO), a must for most modern post-production pipelines, this update gives artists complete control over colors with Color Management. From Viewport to final render, colors are predictable and consistent, so artists know that colors match and align at every phase of production.  

Array modifier updates help artists create beautiful, nature-like scenes, procedurally.

Elevated animation, modeling, and simulation workflows now in Maya

On top of LookDevX and Hydra for Maya, Maya gains new tools and workflows across its animation, modeling, and simulation toolsets.  

• Updates to Retopologize and the Boolean toolset give artists more creative control while modeling. 
• Streamlined animation tools, including a redesigned Time Slider, make navigating and editing animations more fluid and intuitive. 
• Bifrost, Maya’s visual programming environment, offers visual effects artists a complete overhaul of viewport volume rendering, using new, state-of-the-art NanoVTT technology, as well as MPM Gel, a cool new capability that simulates substances such as soft-serve ice cream. 
• Maya–including Bifrost and Arnold for Maya–now runs natively on Apple Silicon, enabling artists to achieve new levels of performance while rendering. 

Cool new capability MPM Gel simulates substances such as soft-serve ice cream.

AI-assisted workflowscome toMaya  

We’re excited to unveil the AI-powered private betaofMaya Assist, which provides a new way of interacting with Maya scene data usingMicrosoft’s AzureOpenAI Service. Thisallows artists to automaticallymanipulate scenes using natural language text prompts directly in Maya.For example, you can ask to copy an object, increase its size by 25%,oradd a camera and aim it anywhere. The private beta launches on April 5. To apply,visit ourMaya Assist Feedback Application page.

Joining forces withAdobe onanopen source materialmodel 

With the goal of standardizing material workflows and enabling smoother interoperabilityacross thetools artists use,we’re alsoworkingtobring Autodesk Standard Surface and Adobe Standard Material into one newmaterial model that can be used across product portfolios and adopted by the wider industry.Having a common material model will help artists and studios work more efficiently byfacilitating the seamless exchange of3Dassets. We’reactively engaging with theMaterialX governance group to ensure that the new model can be integrated and fully encoded within aMaterialX node graph. 

To learnmore, visit the what’s new pages forMaya,3ds Max, andArnold. These products areavailable as standalone subscriptions or with theAutodesk Media & Entertainment Collection.If you have questions or want to connectwith Autodesk expertsgo to ourproduct and industrygroups on AREA.