Retopology
Updates to Maya’s Retopology toolset include Retopologise with Symmetry, which creates an even edge structure on both sides of a mesh. Other changes include the ability to selectively preserve features in areas of meshes, including options to preserve edges according to their angle or component tags. There is also the ability to scan the mesh for potential issues such as non-manifold geometry before running Retopologise and retain the original mesh in the scene graph. For manual retopologisation, Make Live now also supports multiple objects.
3D modelling
With Maya 2024, modellers also receive the Unsmooth command to reset Catmull-Clark-subdivided meshes to a lower resolution. Other changes include support for the MikkTSpace standard for tangent space when baking normal maps, improved performance in the UV editor and new tool shelves for UV editing, curve and surface tools.
Materials
MaterialsLook Development Artists receive LookdevX, a new toolset for creating USD shading graphs in Maya. Unlike materials created with the existing Hypershade Editor, materials created with LookdevX can be used in an entire USD-based pipeline without the need for conversion.
Character animation
Character riggers and animators also receive some specific changes, including the ability to display skin weights created with the Paint Skin Weights tool as numerical values in the viewport. In addition, multiple skin clusters can now be used on a single geometry. There are also 36 new math nodes for creating more complex rigs.
Simulation
Are you looking for a new way to simulate realistic icing, ketchup or melted chocolate? Then you’ll love the Bifrost 2.7 update for Maya! With the new source_mpm_gel node, you can now also simulate gel materials such as soft ice cream. NanoVTT is now used as the default renderer for volumes in the preview, which significantly improves the preview in the viewport.
Plugins: Updates for USD for Maya, MtoA and Substance in Maya
Maya’s other plugins have also received an update: USD for Maya 0.22 now supports relative paths for USD files in Maya scenes and improves the display of layers. MtoA 5.3, which integrates Maya with the Arnold renderer, updates the physical sky to separate light contributions from the sun and sky. The Substance plugin for editing materials in Substance format within Maya has also been updated. With Substance 2.3.2 there is now native support for Apple Silicon.
Price and system requirements
Maya 2024 is available for Windows 10 , RHEL and Rocky Linux 8.6 and macOS 11 and can only be rented. Subscriptions cost $235 USD per month, an increase of $10 USD over the previous release, or $1,875 USD per year, an increase of $90 USD over the previous release. In many countries, artists earning less than $100,000 per year and working on projects worth less than $100,000 per year can purchase Maya Indie subscriptions at a price of $305 per year.
