Autodesk Maya, commonly shortened to just Maya (/ˈmaɪə/; MY-ə[5][6]), is a 3D computer graphics application that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, originally developed by Alias and currently owned and developed by Autodesk. It is used to create assets for interactive 3D applications (including video games), animated films, TV series, and visual effects.
History
Maya was originally an animation product based on code from The Advanced Visualizer by Wavefront Technologies, Thomson Digital Image (TDI) Explore, PowerAnimator by Alias, and Alias Sketch!. The IRIX-based projects were combined and animation features were added; the project codename was Maya.[7]Walt Disney Feature Animation collaborated closely with Maya's development during its production of Dinosaur.[8] Disney requested that the user interface of the application be customizable to allow for a personalized workflow. This was a particular influence in the open architecture of Maya, and partly responsible for its popularity in the animation industry.
In the early days of development Maya started with Tcl as the scripting language, in order to leverage its similarity to a Unix shell language, but after the merger with Wavefront it was replaced with Maya Embedded Language (MEL). Sophia, the scripting language in Wavefront's Dynamation, was chosen as the basis of MEL.[10]
Maya 1.0 was released in February 1998. Following a series of acquisitions, Maya was bought by Autodesk in 2005.[11][12] Under the name of the new parent company, Maya was renamed Autodesk Maya. However, the name "Maya" continues to be the dominant name used for the product.
Overview
Maya is an application used to generate 3D assets for use in film, television, games, and commercials. The software was initially released for the IRIX operating system. However, this support was discontinued in August 2006 after the release of version 6.5. Maya was available in both "Complete" and "Unlimited" editions until August 2008, when it was turned into a single suite.[13]
Users define a virtual workspace (scene) to implement and edit media of a particular project. Scenes can be saved in a variety of formats, the default being .mb (Maya D). Maya exposes a node graph architecture. Scene elements are node-based, each node having its own attributes and customization. As a result, the visual representation of a scene is based entirely on a network of interconnecting nodes, depending on each other's information. For the convenience of viewing these networks, there is a dependency and a directed acyclic graph.
On March 1, 2003, Alias was given an Academy Award for Technical Achievement by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for scientific and technical achievement for their development of Maya software.[15]
^"History". Maya books. Archived from the original on November 25, 2010. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
^Muwanguzi, Michael J (July 1, 2010). "Maya 2011". Microfilmmaker Magazine. Archived from the original(Software Review) on July 20, 2011. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
^Sharpe, Jason; Lumsden, Charles J; Woolridge, Nicholas (2008), In silico: 3D animation and simulation of cell biology with Maya and MEL, Morgan Kaufmann Martin, p. 263, ISBN978-0-12-373655-0
Autodesk Autodesk Media and Entertainment Autodesk Animator Autodesk Vault Autodesk Toxik Autodesk Revit Autodesk Alias Autodesk Lustre Vernor v. Autodesk, Inc. Autodesk 123D Autodesk Inventor Autodesk 3ds Max Autodesk Softimage Autodesk Gameware Autodesk Maya Fusion 360 Autodesk MotionBuilder Autodesk Mudbox Sketchbook (software) Autodesk Simulation AutoCAD Architecture Bitsquid Combustion (software) Design Web Format Autodesk Arnold AutoCAD Spatial Data File EAGLE (program) List of films made with Autodesk 3ds Max 123RF Well-known text representation of geometry