Maya for Mac OS X

Proving yet again that the Mac is the professionals’ choice, one of the world’s top 3-D graphics applications (maybe the top app) was released on the Mac OS X platform in Sept. 2001. It's been updated several times since then -- most recently, to version 5.

Say hello to Maya, the 3-D program behind the special effects in 26 of the top 50 movies of all time. Indeed, Steve Jobs calls Maya “even bigger than Mac OS X.”

Richard Kerris, the former director of Alias|Wavefront's Mac development effort, was let go along with eight other employees in June. He was quoted as saying before he left, “We want to keep it familiar to the people who use Maya but we also want it to be a Mac-compliant application.” At Steve Jobs’ keynote presentation at the Macworld Expo in Jan. 2001, Kerris demonstrated an early build of Maya for Mac OS X performing real-time solid-body dynamics, as a virtual wrecking ball smashed into a stack of 3D boxes. He also showed off the program’s real-time 3D Paint Effects technology, rendering volumetric clouds and vegetation onto a virtual landscape in real time, thanks to the computer’s powerful G4 chip. SGI, the parent company of Alias | Wavefront, insists that the departures of Kerris and the other eight staff members will not delay the product's release, saying only that "Kerris had been a victim of the softening economy."

Since the first release of Maya for IRIX back in Feb. 1998, Alias/Wavefront (now a division of SGI), has been stealing the thunder from Softimage, once the reigning king of the high-performance under-$15,000 3D tools. At US$10,000 (climbing as high as $30,000 when optional modules are added), Maya -- also available for Windows NT -- is definitely not for triflers, but for character animators looking for a pro level tool, it is a gem, with a great interface, cluster animations, quick shape animation, soft body dynamics, particles, light fx, and serious speed!

It is perhaps a portent of the future that Industrial Light and Magic, which has long been a Softimage shop, recently adopted Maya. Why? Well, for starters, the program's interface is simply brilliant (much better than that of Softimage and faster to boot), with the best interface design of any 3D program we’ve seen. Menus tear off, and the right mouse button (A|W says a three-button mouse is required for Maya) invokes a whole array of pop-up menus with a simple click-and-hold operation that has to be seen to be appreciated. Maya's soft-body dynamics are unrivaled in any other package, and its scripting language allows extensive customization and automation. Audio features like scrubbing make Maya ideal for character animation work, and its integral post-processing renderer make effects like glows and lens flares easy. And, best of all, Maya is blazingly fast. The program, which is protected with a dongle and a set of serial numbers, works best with a hardware-accelerated Open GL card and 128MB or more of RAM.

Bt the way, Maya is not named after the advanced but extinct Central American civilization that performed mathematics in base 20 but never invented the wheel. In fact, the company says its inspiration for the name “Maya” comes from the other side of the planet, from Hindu and Buddhist mystical belief.

Free Samples
Alias|Wavefront recently released a Mac application that demonstrates its Paint Effects technology. The Maya Paint Effects Screen Saver for Mac OS 8.1 or newer is based on the Paint Effects technology in Alias|Wavefront's Maya 3D animation package.

The screen saver will fill your Mac screen's idle moments with a large variety of natural and not so natural effects. Cover your screen with flowers, pretzels, vines, galaxies, feathers, copper pipes, or any of the other fascinating presets provided. Expand your palette even further by downloading additional presets.

In Feb. 2002, the company made a 'Maya Personal Learning Edition' of the software available for download, providing free, non-commercial access to its award-winning 3D software. Read more....

Maya 4.5 Personal Learning Edition (update)
Alias|Wavefront subsequently updated this non-commercial offering with the release of a free version of Maya 4.5 Personal Learning Edition. Beginning in Jan. 2003, the company began offering downloads of the Personal Learning Edition, designed to allow those interested in acquiring Maya skills to do so without purchasing a commercial license.

In response to requests from the Maya Personal Learning Edition community, enhancements have been made to make version 4.5 a more effective learning tool. For example, the global watermark -- which is placed on all Maya Learning Edition documents -- is no longer visible when working in wireframe mode, so users can concentrate on developing their modeling skills.

Maya Personal Learning Edition is offered for Windows 2000/XP Professional and Mac OS X in a few different forms: On December 3rd, the first copies of Maya Personal Learning Edition were made available exclusively at 3December events in Paris, London, Seoul, Tokyo, LA, New York and Sydney.

A|W also offers the Maya Personal Learning Edition CD, bundled with the Learning Maya | Beginners Guide, at the company's online store. This bundle includes a one-hour DVD learning guide and booklet on sale for US$19.99. The DVD includes English, French, German, Japanese and Korean narration.

The company's website presents a couple of other options: Windows 2000/XP users can pay US$10 to order the PLE disc from DigitalRiver.com, or, by hunting around a little at the A|W site, you'll find a page where you can download the Windows or Mac OS X version directly, by providing registration information.

At least that's how it is supposed to work. When we tried to download the 110MB  file on Jan 3, the download halted part of the way through the process and the website began displaying a "download is temporarily unavailable" message -- a problem that persisted when we tried again on Jan. 4. At this writing, the download is still unavailable.

Maya 4.5 Personal Learning Edition requires a registration key, which is sent to an email address you are required to supply.  Read more....

Get it at www.aliaswavefront.com

Version 5
At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in April 2003, A|W announced Maya 5. New features include a Vector Renderer, allowing the creation of Macromedia Flash vector graphics, EPS, Illustrator and SVG files. A new Hardware Renderer produces images up to 20 times faster than previous Maya versions. MacCentral details a number of other new features, including a new polygon reduction facility, new UV editing and extrusion tools, and the ability to paint Face Vertices. Maya Learning Tool DVDs are now included in every box.
Maya Complete for Mac OS X, Windows, IRIX and Linux is priced at US$1,999. The new version will be released in May. Upgrades are priced at US$899. Prices are for node-locked versions.

For Further Reading:

• The Techno Zone: The 3DZone News page
• Business Wire: Maya for OS X now in beta
• MacWorld: Shock eXit for Mac Maya Boss
• Business Wire: Alias|Wavefront Makes 3D Computer Graphics Available To All -- Much-anticipated 'Maya Personal Learning Edition' now available for download providing free, non-commercial access to award-winning 3D software
• Macworld UK: Alias shuts office, loses co-founder: Troubled 3D giant Alias|Wavefront has closed its Santa Barbara development office. [3/7/02]
• NAB- Alias|Wavefront announces Maya 5 [4/06/03]