Into the World of Maya

If we are to talk about computer animation and the software associated with it, there is one name we can’t afford to miss—that’s ‘Maya’! Maya is the leading name in 3D animation and rendering software for its high-end features and unique capabilities. Getting its name from the Sanskrit word for ‘illusion’, Maya indeed lives up to it by its powerfully impressive potential, which have enraptured all the animation-crazy creatures of the present world.

To let you in this world of illusion and Maya, you must know its origin. This is an integrated 3D software package, developed from Alias’ Power Animator. Maya has been released in two versions—May Complete and Maya Unlimited (the more advanced version). Many popular feature films of today owe their fame to Maya. For instance, Jurassic Park, Terminator 2: Judgment Day have their fame rested on the power of Maya 3D animation. Maya’s originator Alias Research merged with Wavefront|TDI and this resulted in great synergies; both combined their best software strengths taking each step closer to the discovery of ‘Maya’.

Alias moved the Mac product ‘Alias Sketch!’ to the SGI platform and modified it further with the code name ‘Maya’. This was when this word first came into use. Later, Alias|Wavefront merger took the Maya saga forward inspiring customers to switch to this high-end product. When Alias was acquired by Autodesk in 2005-2006, this software came to be known as Autodesk Maya.

Maya not just takes prides in its versatile modeler, character animation and visual effects capabilities; it is also strongly popular in video game development. Its node-based architecture helps in creating complex animation and rendering links. Because of its complex functionality, it is quite difficult to learn this. However, Maya tutorials are plenty over the web to help learn comfortably or take guidance.

Maya has also been used in some of the finest animated television shows that time has ever produced. It has a customizable interface which helps in bringing about various high-end visual effects. This is one interesting feature in Maya—its adaptability to third-party software, functioning in the garb of another software. So this precisely explains why Maya is the software of choice in big studios where customized codes are written for production.

With Maya, you are capable of keyframe, nonlinear, and path animation, motion capture animation, skinning, rendering (shading, lighting, and paint effects), constraints, character sets, mental ray rendering, and more. The Unlimited version also helps you to implement cloth, hair, fluid and fur simulation, etc. along with scripting and plug-ins. Maya 3d tutorials are something which you can always fall back on whenever you need guidance or would like to challenge your own understanding of the software. So enjoy being transfixed to this illusion of Maya.