Golaem crowd tools added to Autodesk Media & Entertainment Collection
March 26, 2025

Golaem crowd tools added to Autodesk Media & Entertainment Collection

San Francisco, CA – To help strengthen collaboration and creativity for artists, Autodesk is making crowd tools more accessible, integrating AI to strengthen tools, and enhancing Flow-connected workflows, in the latest release of its Design & Make software for Media & Entertainment.
“We’re breaking down long-standing technical barriers to get artists into the creative zone faster,” says Ben Fischler, Autodesk’s director of product management for content creation. “With new crowd simulation, AI-powered tools, and Flow-connected workflows, our latest updates help you reach that last 80%—where the real fun begins, and you can focus on making your shot work for the story.”

More accessible crowd tools: Golaem added to Media & Entertainment Collection

Autodesk has added the Golaem plug-in for Maya to the Media & Entertainment Collection, to simplify the process of creating large-scale crowd scenes – whether it’s a stadium full of cheering fans or soldiers on a battlefield – making it easier to fill 3D worlds with multiple animated characters.

“Crowd simulation has long been a challenge, and our mission has always been to make it accessible to all,” shares Nicolas Chaverou, Golaem co-founder and principal technical product manager at Autodesk. “Now, as part of Autodesk’s M&E Collection, we’re thrilled that Golaem is in the hands of more studios and can empower more artists to create stunning, large-scale scenes with ease.”

Golaem added to M&E Collection

  • • Golaem’s Layout tool allows studios to adjust and customize characters directly in the Maya viewport without altering simulations. Its built-in procedural animation engine helps control multiple characters at once. Once the simulation is set up in Maya, it can be transferred to 3ds Max, Houdini, Unreal, or Katana using Golaem’s dedicated plug-ins.
  • • Golaem for Maya supports major industry formats, including OpenUSD, streamlining the work across different tools.
  • • Golaem joins a powerful lineup in the Media & Entertainment Collection, which includes Maya, 3ds Max, Arnold, MotionBuilder, Mudbox, and 15 Bifrost simulation nodes in one cost-efficient package.
  • • The Autodesk Media & Entertainment Collection allows running Arnold on up to 5 machines, making crowd rendering faster and more cost-efficient.

AI tools that foster more interactive and efficient workflows

Creators' days should be fueled by passion, not hindered by repetitive tasks. You entered this field for the magic of creation, and Autodesk is dedicated to helping you craft animation more interactively and efficiently.

  • • The Machine Learning Deformer in Maya, powered by Autodesk AI, addresses sluggish interactivity when working with complex characters.
  • • The latest update to Maya brings major improvements to the ML Deformer for animators and layout artists, focusing on speed, quality, and ease of use. Load times are now 40 times faster, and disk space usage has been reduced by 80%, allowing creators to focus on building elements that tell extraordinary stories.


Flow Animating in Context: More scene context with connected workflows

Animators often get assigned tasks with little to no scene context—just a shot with no sense of what comes before or after. This makes it challenging to create performances that fit the narrative. Autodesk is committed to transforming this process to help animators craft performances that truly fit the story.

  • • Flow Animating in Context integrates surrounding shots from Flow Production Tracking (formerly ShotGrid) directly into Maya’s timeline.
  • • Animators and layout artists can scrub between their work and the surrounding shots, making informed creative choices to improve cut continuity.
  • • Flow Animating in Context allows you to switch between different pipeline steps, whether its layout or FX – to further pinpoint the part of the cut you need to focus on. The result is faster production and better storytelling.
Enhanced tools for modeling, FX, and OpenUSD

The tools that animators and artists use daily should be both fast and enjoyable to use. Autodesk is excited to announce that the latest updates to Maya and 3ds Max include hundreds of enhancements and fixes, designed to bring creators closer to an undisrupted creative flow.

•  Modeling improvements – The powerful Volume Booleans tool is now available in Maya and 3ds Max, creating a more unified Boolean engine between the two tools. This update makes it easier to explore freeform shapes and build complex organic forms from simple primitives.



•   Liquids – Bifrost's new liquid simulation feature is now available directly within the Bifrost graph. The new FLIP solver offers adaptive resolution for efficient computation, particle-based foam, and improved velocity estimation. You can also emit and blend colored liquids. It is perfect for large-scale, non-viscous fluids.
•   OpenUSD enhancements – Improvements continue across both Maya and 3ds Max OpenUSD, with added support for axis and scale adjustments in Maya and recently, an Attribute Editor in 3ds Max. A long-requested feature, Light Linking, is also now available in both tools, giving you greater control over rendering.
•   OpenPBR integration – OpenPBR is now the default shading option in both Maya and 3ds Max, bringing enhanced artistic controls, more accurate material representation across tools and improved interchange with other software.

For a complete list of new features, visit the Maya, 3ds Max, Arnold, and Flow Production Tracking What’s New pages. Free trial of the Golaem plug-in for Maya is now available as part of the Media & Entertainment Collection.

Dune: Part Two made with Autodesk Maya. Image Courtesy of DNEG © 2024 Legendary and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.