Autodesk has released Maya 2020, featuring new improvements that empower animators, modelers, riggers, and technical artists to work faster and more efficiently throughout the production pipeline.
Building on powerful animation features introduced in Maya 2019, Maya 2020 adds more than 60 new updates animators will notice in their day-to-day work. The release also includes Arnold 6, which can now be used for production rendering on both the CPU and GPU, as well as significant performance enhancements and new simulation features to Bifrost, the visual programming environment in Maya.
"As the demand for entertainment content continues to explode, artists need tools that augment the creative process, enabling them to work faster and put their best creative foot forward. Building features driven by community feedback and making sure artists at every stage of production are able to work efficiently have been development priorities for Maya 2020," stated Chris Vienneau, senior director, Media & Entertainment products, Autodesk. "This latest update is designed to help artists carry out their vision with greater speed, while also making the creative process more fun and engaging."
New features of the 2020 release include:
Cached Playback
Experience faster animation playback and more predictable results with new preview modes, layered dynamics caching, and more efficient caching of image planes.
Animation bookmarks
Mark, organize, and navigate through specific events in time and frame playback ranges.
Arnold GPU
Access Arnold 6 for production rendering on the CPU and GPU.
Bifrost for Maya
Significant performance improvements, Cached Playback support, and new MPM cloth constraints bring even more power to the visual programming environment.
Viewport improvements
Interact with and select dense geometry or a large number of smaller meshes faster in the viewport and UV editors.
Modeling enhancements
Spend more time modeling and less time cleaning up your models, with new Remesh and Retopologize features.
Rigging improvements
Simplify rig and character TD work with matrix-driven workflows, nodes for precisely tracking positions on deforming geometry, and a new GPU-accelerated wrap deformer.