Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 26, 2013. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The tools in Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite 2014, namely Maya, 3ds Max, MotionBuilder, Mudbox, Softimage and Sketchbook Designer, are receiving their annual update. According to Autodesk, the software packages provide extensive workflow enhancements so artists can collaborate better and move data through their pipelines more efficiently.
Three suite variants are intended to meet the needs of every team, budget or project size. The Standard Edition offers a choice of Maya or 3ds Max, and buyers also receive MotionBuilder, Mudbox and Sketchbook Designer. The Premium Edition contains all the Standard Edition tools plus Softimage. The top tier, the Ultimate Suite, includes all the tools in the Premium Edition but provides both Maya and 3ds Max rather than only one of the software packages.
These are the new features in the individual tools of Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite:
Autodesk Maya 2014
Autodesk equipped the 2014 version of Maya with an expanded, integrated modelling feature set and added an innovative Grease Pencil and new Paint Effects features.
The Maya DX 11Shader, which works with enhancements in Viewport 2.0, is intended for real-time use in a high-quality environment whose result should come close to the final output. New Scene Assembly and a File Path Editor are part of the coming release. The Uniform Resource Identifier Support Tools are intended to enable the construction and management of complex worlds.
3ds Max 2014
The new Populate feature in 3ds Max is intended to save artists a great deal of time by allowing moving or static crowds with human reactions and activities to be created quickly and easily. You may have seen our sneak videos.
Additional updates include an optimised Particle Flow toolset and a performance-improved viewport that now supports the Microsoft DirectX 11 Shader. According to Autodesk, the Perspective Match and Vector Map tools also allow artists to push the boundaries between 2D and 3D further.
Softimage 2014
The new Camera Sequencer toolset in Softimage 2014 offers the ability to cut between different cameras and edit clips while leaving the original animation data unchanged. This release also adds improved CrowdFX and Interactive Creative Environments (ICE) features, intended to give artists the ability to use passes and partitions in many arbitrary combinations with every aspect of ICE.
According to Autodesk, the high-quality viewport has also been improved so that it now offers a more precise, interactive experience. Through optimised support for exchanging animation data via the FBX format, Softimage 2014 now offers easier integration into existing pipelines.
MotionBuilder 2014
MotionBuilder version 2014 is intended to let studios handle and refine motion capture and other character animation data more efficiently. Linux support, new motion-capture workflow options and allegedly artist-friendly methods for positioning, measuring and selecting objects have also been added.
Mudbox 2014
The 2014 release of Mudbox primarily offers improved retopology tools. According to Autodesk, further features include single-click automation and manual options with which meshes can be edited or various aspects of the output mesh controlled precisely. This is intended to let artists concentrate entirely on aesthetic considerations. The software’s multi-touch workflow has also been revised.
Autodesk Gameware 2014
Scaleform 4.3
New features in Scaleform 4.3 include support for additional ActionScript 3 API classes, increasing platform compatibility and native extension for Adobe AIR. Developers can now apparently use a range of third-party and community-developed extensions directly in Scaleform. With improved Adobe Flash blending, UI designers are also intended to be able to use a wider range of colour and shape transformations in this version. Scaleform is also compatible with the Unity 4 engine and now supports Windows 8. According to Autodesk, compatibility for mobile devices has also been expanded so that a broader range of devices can be served.
Gameware Navigation 2014
The new Gameware Navigation 2014 middleware is intended to let developers use complete source-code access, an accessible API and new remote visual debugging tools to create complex, sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI). Navigation, the successor to Autodesk Kynapse, has automatic NavMesh generation as well as pathfinding and path following in complex game environments. This release supports character and obstacle avoidance, dynamic NavMesh and Unreal Engine 3.
Beast 2014
Beast 2014 helps game developers simulate natural, physically correct lighting effects and test them more quickly. According to Autodesk, it can be integrated into level editors and enables artists to determine level lighting interactively because it is intended to show an accurate final render preview almost in real time. Further features include physics-based rendering for natural lighting and Open Shading Language support for more flexibility in creating material properties. The Beast API is designed so that many game engines can be integrated easily and intuitively.
HumanIK 2014
HumanIK middleware 2014 is intended to make creating large character animation libraries unnecessary. According to Autodesk, full-body inverse kinematics and real-time retargeting technology allow characters to interact with the game environment and adapt to it during runtime. The new version is intended to optimise simultaneous animation of large groups. Support for mobile platforms has also been improved, and as a C++ library HumanIk supports many major gaming platforms.
