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Autodesk 2012: Here Comes the Entertainment Creation Suite

Published on by Bela Beier. The Topics are: Autodesk 3ds Max (585)
Autodesk announces details of its new versions and middleware technologies. After Autodesk was again involved in practically all relevant productions last year, from games such as “Medal of Honor” through cinema hits such as “Black Swan” to TV hits such as “Glee”, the next iteration is intended to focus development on faster working speeds and more possibilities in the viewport.

Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 2, 2011. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.

Thus 3ds Max and Maya are being further developed in sculpting and texturing, and improved in real-time character animation and effects. All packages are intended to receive a consistent user interface to enable artists to familiarise themselves more quickly in complex workflows.

The improvements in detail:

  • 3ds Max receives a new graphics core, mRigids for dynamic rigid-body simulations in the viewport and new clone brushes.
  • Maya also receives the new viewport – in version 2.0 – as well as node-based render passes, which make a large proportion of the render settings conveniently available in Maya. There are also editable motion trails, meaning work is now done directly in the viewport and there is no longer a need to switch to the Graph Editor. A new sequencer version allows clips to be arranged, in/out points to be edited and camera assignments to be changed in the sequencer playlist.
  • Softimage 2012 now brings procedural ICE modelling, built-in Syflex cloth simulation, stereoscopy modules and a software develpoment kit for multicore sywstems.
  • Mudbox 2012 provides UV-less painting, meaning painting without previously building UVs, whose results are then exported directly as Ptex. It also adds management for large texture sets, which are intended to manage hundreds of hero sets from billions of texels conveniently both during display and painting.
  • MotionBuilder 2012 is also equipped with the new viewport, as well as stereo display and camera rigs and an adapted interface for the HumanIK 4.5 solver or the 2012 middleware.
  • Smoke 2012, timeline-based finishing for Macs, has received a freshly overhauled 3D lighting system, as well as Flame FX, a set of finishing tools such as Damage, Deform, Edge Detect and Pixel Spread.
  • Games Middleware for Common Runtime now has an enhanced API, which in Beast 2012 enables global illumination for sEriOus interactive lighting in the preview, in order to light everything in advance in game-level editors.
  • The HumanIK 2012 character-animation middleware already supports the next generation of Sony’s portable gaming systems, as well as the iOS platform, bringing realistic characters to these low-end platforms for mobile gamers.

    • As a sponsor of the TED conference, Autodesk will also present “Project Photofly”, which makes it worthwhile to keep an eye on TED.com in the near future.

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    https://digitalproduction.com/2011/03/02/autodesk-2012-hier-kommt-die-entertainment-creation-suite/