Autodesk Debuts 2014 Entertainment Creation Suite

Maya 2014, 3ds Max 2014, MotionBuilder 2014, Mudbox 2014, Softimage 2014 and Sketchbook Designer 2014 all have been updated to offer new workflow enhancements that help artists collaborate, manage complexity and move data through their pipeline more efficiently.

"Modern production teams must manage multiple complex, visually demanding projects at any given time, and Autodesk works closely with world renowned entertainment studios to develop the most powerful solutions," said Chris Bradshaw, senior vice president, Media & Entertainment at Autodesk. "The Entertainment Creation Suites provide a unified and flexible workflow, offering teams of all sizes the ability to better manage across a globally distributed creative workforce. Each product in the toolset saves valuable production time, while giving artists more creative freedom to work with the best tool for the job at hand."

With three configurations, the Suites scale to meet the demands of various sized teams, budgets or projects. The Standard edition includes industry-recognized 3D software and offers a choice of either Maya 2014 or 3ds Max 2014 with MotionBuilder 2014, Mudbox 2014 and Sketchbook Designer 2014.

The Premium edition offers all the software of the Standard Suite, but with the addition of Softimage 2014 3D animation and visual effects software.

With the Ultimate Suite, customers have access to the Premium edition, with the added benefit of including both Maya 2014 and 3ds Max 2014.

Autodesk Maya 2014 includes an expanded, integrated modeling feature set; intuitive Grease Pencil; and innovative new Paint Effects features that are designed to improve productivity and enhance creativity. The Maya DX11Shader, working with enhancements to Viewport 2.0, enables artists to work in a high-quality real-time environment that closely matches final output. New Scene Assembly, a File Path Editor, and URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) support tools allows for easier building and managing of large and complex worlds.

Autodesk 3ds Max 2014 offers the new Populate feature, which saves artists time and allows them to quickly and easily generate moving or idle crowds with life-like human reactions and activity. Additional updates include: a significantly enhanced and more efficient Particle Flow toolset; and a performance-enhanced viewport that now supports Microsoft DirectX 11 shaders. Perspective Match and Vector Map tools allow artists to extend their creative capabilities by crossing the 2D/3D divide.

Autodesk Softimage'snew Camera Sequencer toolset offers the ability to cut between multiple cameras to edit clips, leaving the original animation data unchanged; directorial control over scenes; improved CrowdFX and ICE (Interactive Creative Environment) features enable artists to use the concept of passes and partitions in any combination with any aspect of ICE; and an improved High-Quality Viewport delivers a higher fidelity interactive experience. Autodesk Softimage 2014 now offers easier integration into existing pipelines through improved support for animation data exchange via the Autodesk FBX 2014 format.

With Autodesk MotionBuilder 2014, studios can more efficiently manipulate and refine motion capture and other character animation data for use in onset visualization, previsualization, virtual cinematography, feature film production and game development. Linux operating system support is now available, as well as new motion capture workflow options; artist-friendly methods for positioning, measuring and selecting objects; the ability to use custom viewport renderers; and an API (Application Programming Interface) for file referencing.

The latest update to Autodesk Mudbox offers single-click automatic and manual options to manipulate meshes or to precisely control various aspects of the output mesh with a user-directed solution. Artists can now concentrate purely on aesthetic considerations as they sculpt, without altering the underlying structure. Enhanced multi-touch workflows now include support for stencils and additional touch-enabled input devices.

Autodesk SketchBook Designer 2014 is an intuitive hybrid paint and vector toolset that enables exploration and presentation of new ideas for characters, props and environments. Additional benefits include: sketching, painting and image compositing workflows; easy color manipulation; mixed media workflows and an industry-unique transformation tool. The dynamic, scalable user interface is optimized for both pen and mouse interaction and is designed to offer maximum creative freedom.