LAS VEGAS (NAB 2016) — Autodesk (www.autodesk.com) is at the 2016 NAB show with a number of announcements including the completion of the company’s acquisition of SolidAngle, the developer of the Arnold rendering solution.
Autodesk’s Marc Stevens says SolidAngle’s high-quality, final frame renderer will receive additional resources from Autodesk to further aid in its development. That said, Autodesk reports that it will continue to support open APIs and open ecosystems for customers that want to incorporate Mental Ray, V-Ray or RenderMan into their pipelines. Arnold is used by studios such as Psyop, Framestore and Rodeo FX. The rendering tool has been used on feature films that include Gravity and
The Martian.
Autodesk also laid out its “Create, Connect, Compute” business strategy. ‘Create’ is supported with tools such as Maya and 3DS Max. The company’s acquisition of Shotgun two years ago represents its ‘Connect’ strategy. And Arnold now fills the ‘Compute’ space.
Autodesk is also teaming up with Google to offer a Maya cloud rendering service based on Google’s ZYNC platform. ZYNC started as an in-house rendering service and later became an commercial rendering service. It now allows for Maya uploads and has been expanded to 30,000 cores of performance for users, up from just 1,500 previously.
Marc Hamaker, Autodesk’s director for M&E, announced product news that includes 2017 version of the entire Flame family, as well as the recently announced Mac/Linux subscriptions plans. Maya 2016x2 features a new motion graphics toolset, improved character tools and an updated render manager. 3DS Max 2017, he describes as an “artists release,” with 4K HDPI monitor support, a new UI look and feel, and time saving UV unwrapping tools. Autodesk’s Raytrace renderer (ART) is also included.
All of the announcements coincide with immediate ships dates.