Hey everyone,
I’m currently evaluating whether my studio should upgrade to Maya 2010 from our current version of 2008 Ext 2. After a quick preview of the new features that 2010 has, I just couldn’t see anything that might make the upgrade worthwhile.
If anyone has been using 2010 (or even 2009), can you post some of the features, no matter how small, that has helped your studio’s pipeline and work flow?
Thanks everyone!
We make pretty extensive use of Animation Layers, sorta depends on your animation pipeline, but they’re definitely useful.
I’m not sure. I don’t know of a ton of studios that have made the switch. I always encourage people to use what’s working right now. A lot of times the tools look cool to have, but doesn’t help if the company you go to is using maya 2008, which doesn’t have that specific tool, and now you’re forced to work around something that’s already in your workflow. Maybe a small thing, but that’s the way my mind works.
I am split, we all know that with every year there is an upgrade or some new feature bla, bla, but if animation is important and you want to lighten the load on the character rig with added offset nodes and matching etc, then the animation layers are worth the upgrade along with any one that is working between MotionBuilder and Maya with FBIK.
There are some nice upgrades to mental ray and modeling but most people that are doing heavy modeling all ready have all their tools and scripts and workflow locked down.
Also if your are on complete but want the features unlimited like hair and ncloth etc for simulation then 2010 will be a worth while upgrade.
Between 2008 and 2010 I’d upgrade… anim layers are in heavy use across the studio here and most animators seem to grasp them a lot faster than using Trax for motion correction and layering. Also if you use referencing there was a number of fixes between 2008 and 2009 which helped us.
Like others said, Animation Layers is a huge reason to upgrade.
We are on 2008 and I’m recommending holding off on going to 2010 and waiting for 2011 in our studio. There are some worthwhile features, but 2011 looks great and I’d rather upgrade once.
I agree with Sockmonkey, wait for 2011.
Thx for all the replies guys! It was pretty much decided that just animation layers wasn’t enough for a full studio upgrade to 2010.
But I’m down at GDC right now and after talking with the autodesk guys, I’m pretty much sold on 2011.