Alias Announces Maya Unlimited for Mac OS X
Maya Unlimited 6 for Mac OS X Available for Purchase in Late Summer 2004
San Francisco, California – WWDC – June 28, 2004 – Alias=D2 announced today
the impending availability of Maya=D2 Unlimited for the Mac OS X operating
system, at the Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC). Responding to
increasing customer demand from the Mac community, Alias is porting the
entire Maya Unlimited feature set for Mac OS X with all tools that are
available to artists with Maya Unlimited 6. Maya 6 is the latest version of
the award-winning Maya software. Maya Unlimited 6 for Mac OS X will be
available to purchase by late summer 2004.
“Due to overwhelming, consistent demand from the Mac community we’re
thrilled to announce Maya Unlimited will soon be available for Mac OS X,”
says Bob Bennett, general manager, product management at Alias. “Combining
Maya’s most sophisticated 3D and special effects tools with Apple’s
advanced technology will allow Mac artists to integrate Maya Unlimited into
their pipelines for endless creative possibilities.”
“Our customers and Apple are thrilled about this widely anticipated release
of Maya Unlimited for Mac OS X,” says Ron Okamoto, Apple’s vice president
of Worldwide Developer Relations. “Alias is bringing advanced 3D graphic
tools to creative professionals, who rely on the stability, high
performance and graphics engine of Mac OS X.”
Alias Loves the Mac
Since Maya Complete was released for Mac OS X in 2001, the enthusiasm of
the Mac community for 3D software, and its potential for their workflow,
has continued to grow. Sales figures for Maya consistently show
approximately 29% of Maya Complete sales in North America on the Mac
platform and approximately 20% globally (quarterly figures vary).
Alias continues to provide updated versions of Maya Personal Learning
Edition for the Mac platform and in early June 2004 another Alias product
debuted on the Mac platform – Alias SketchBook=D4 Pro. Alias SketchBook Pro
is a consumer priced sketching, presenting and annotation software that is
now available for both Mac OS X and Windows=D2 platforms.
“Maya Unlimited 6 for Mac OS X now literally puts all my tools right at my
fingertips. The integration of Maya 6’s ability to read layered Photoshop
files has to be seen to be believed and is already bringing about a
paradigm shift to my workflow,” says Rob Magiera, founder of Noumena
Digital. “Maya Unlimited’s Hair, Cloth, and Fluid Effects features add the
last missing tools to my graphics arsenal, so now I’ll be able to handle
every part of a project without having to jump to another machine. Put all
of that into a rock solid, stable environment and it’s a dream come true.”
Maya Leverages Apple’s Advanced Technology
Maya Unlimited leverages Apple advanced technology to take full advantage
of the benefits found with the latest Apple offerings. Features of Maya for
Mac OS X include; recent conversion of Maya to a Mach-O application,
allowing plug-in developers to use Xcode=D4 from the Apple Developers Tools,
AppleScript=D2 support for Maya Embedded Language (MEL=D4 – the Maya scripti=
ng
language), Quartz=D2 rendering for marketing menus and hotbox, QuickTime
implementation throughout the entire package, from file reading to direct
output from Maya renders to QuickTime and QuickTime output for Maya’s
playblast command.
Unlimited Opportunities
The availability of Maya Unlimited for the Mac offers unlimited opportunity
for artists. Maya Unlimited presents special effects features not found in
Maya Complete, including: Maya Hair, Maya Cloth, Maya Fluid Effects, Maya
Fur and Maya Live.
Maya Hair
The Maya innovative Hair toolset, features a dynamic curve simulation
engine designed to enable long hair to be added to characters. The ability
to braid, curl and style hair is perfectly integrated with the Maya
dynamics engine, allowing for strikingly realistic hair movement with
accurate collisions. In addition to long hair effects, the Maya Hair
dynamic curves represent a major new entity that can be used anywhere NURBS
curves are currently used; as well as lending themselves to other hair-like
objects such as ropes, chains and wires, this allows such advanced
animation effects as dynamic character rigs and surfaces to be easily
achieved.
Maya Cloth and Maya Fur
Maya Cloth allows animators to equip digital clothing to characters and
Maya Fur provides creatures with realistic fur. Visual feedback of Cloth
stress, stitching options, easy manipulation of Cloth Objects based on
geometry, plus extensive caching functionality speed the creation and
manipulation of realistic clothing and cloth effects. Artists using Maya
Fur have the option to render Fur in mental ray=D2 for Maya – allowing the=
m
to achieve effects involving reflections, refractions, global illumination
and caustics.
Maya Fluid Effects
Maya Fluid Effects includes a true 3D solver and a highly interactive 2D
solver that allows 2D fluid motion to be simulated in near real-time. As
well as creating natural phenomena, artists can use the fluids as an
animated texture to give a unique look to a logo and many other typical
studio projects. The effects that can be achieved include clouds, smoke,
steam, fog, open water, fire, explosions, space effects, viscous liquids,
molten solids and many more.
Maya Live
Maya Live provides sophisticated matchmoving combining 2D live-action with
3D elements. It provides greater flexibility, a fast, integrated 2D tracker
and an interactive root frame solver. Maya Live also allows users to
reconstruct live-action elements as 3D geometry plus output to external
applications.
Pricing and Availability
Maya Unlimited 6 for all platforms is priced at $6,999* and includes
modeling, rendering, animation, dynamics, Maya Artisan, Maya Paint Effects,
mental ray for Maya, MEL, along with Maya Unlimited specific features; Maya
Hair, Maya Fluid Effects, Maya Fur, Maya Cloth and Maya Live. Maya
Unlimited is also available for the Windows, Linux=D2 and IRIX=D2 operating
systems. Maya Unlimited for Mac OS X will begin shipping in late summer
2004.
Maya Complete 6 for the Windows, IRIX, Linux and Mac OS X operating
systems, is priced at $1,999* and, is available to purchase through the
Alias network of authorized resellers or online at: http://www.alias.com.
* Prices are list prices for node-locked licenses. Floating licenses for
Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited are available at an additional fee. All
prices quoted are in U.S. dollars. International pricing may vary.
About Alias
As the world’s leading innovator of 3D graphics technology, Alias develops
award-winning software, custom development and training solutions for the
film and video, games, web, interactive media, automotive, industrial
design, education and visualization markets. On March 1, 2003, for the
awards year 2002, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded
Alias|Wavefront=81 an Oscar=AE for scientific and technical achievement for =
the
development of Maya software, the professional 3D animation and effects
package. Alias also offers a powerful range of services for new to advanced
users in the most demanding environments. Learning Tools and training,
support, and professional services help meet rigorous production deadlines.
Entertainment customers include: Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., CNN, Digital
Domain, Disney, DreamWorks, Electronic Arts, Industrial Light & Magic,
Factor 5 LLC, Midway Games, Nintendo, Pacific Data Images (PDI), Pixar,
Sega, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Square Co., Ltd., Warner Feature Animation
and Weta Ltd. Design customers include AT&T, BMW, Boeing, Fiat, Ford,
General Motors, Honda, Italdesign, Kodak, Kwikset, Mattel, Price Pfister,
Renault, Rollerblade, Sharp, Trek Bicycle, Teague and Timex.
Alias is headquartered in Toronto with a Custom Development Center in Santa
Barbara. Please visit the Alias website at http://www.alias.com or call
1-800-447-2542 in North America. International contact numbers include:
Northern Europe, Middle East and Africa, +44 (0) 1494 441273; Germany, East
& Southeast Europe, 0049 89 31 70 20; France, Spain and Portugal, +33 1 44
92 81 60; Italy, 39 039 6340011; Japan and other parts of Asia Pacific, 81
3 5797 3500- and Latin America, 770 393 1881.
