Archive notice: This article was originally published on October 3, 2017. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Pixar’s USD technology is used for the smooth exchange of data through a variety of the common tools used in the CG industry. When Pixar released the source code of USD at the beginning of 2016, Animal Logic integrated the technology into its pipeline. Because Maya was an essential building block of this pipeline, the USDMaya plug-in was among the first developments by Animal Logic’s R&D team.
What the Plug-in Can Do
With AL_USDMaya, objects from Maya can be embedded in USD easily and quickly. This applies above all to the assets that were previously difficult to represent in USD. The tools constantly maintain a live connection that sends updates in real time from one piece of software to the other.
For the user, this offers a more dynamic workflow in which they can switch effortlessly between different representations of their objects.
USDMaya Plug-in for Everyone
The source code of AL_USDMaya has been available as a free download since August. Both Pixar and Autodesk are very pleased about this and want to continue developing the plug-in. Here is the download!
