Yeah I said the capabilities of NeX should have been brought into Maya all the way back at 8.5. As for artisan, I say it should be renamed to - The Lumpy Bumpy Lets Destroy Your Mesh Tool. But that might be a bit wordy ;) The simplest way to describe the fidelity and control you get with artisan is to imagine trying to sculpt clay while wearing boxing gloves.

Maya has the base tools needed to model (well at least by 1985 standards) but it could dearly use some updates for better control, precision, and ease of modeling. Simply take a short list of features from a more modern modeling application like modo and pin it to a wall and start throwing darts!

Better selection tools, better precision, fall offs, background constraints, better sculpting tools, better uv'ing tools, more accurate bevels and champfers, surfacing tools, better asset management and those are just a short list of polygon improvements!

Nurbs needs a major overhaul as well. I prefer NURB's to splines but half the time maya's nurbs tools do not work or require all sorts of convoluted tricks to get them to work properly and then you have to play endlessly with the tesselation, which always confused me since alias also made one of the best automotive nurbs based surfacing appliations called studiotools. I never understood why the maya's nurbs tools were so inferior to the tool set in studiotools. But that is another topic of debate.

This looks like a more complete listing of the new features:

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/cory/what_s_new_in_2011

I'm really glad to see Arbitrary Scaling (along different axes!!!! :attn: )
Object level soft select sounds pretty useful.
Camera sequencer should be cool too.
Better icon features/support (but still don't know if you can access the regular set?)

Either way, it's a bigger list than I've seen previously, and there's a lot of dynamics additions and improvements which I hope to get into someday.

THe dynamics stuff does look good, the auto resize for fluids looks good and will give quicker simulation times.

Hope I ray gets in there but I doubt it.

Would be nice to have some modeling features as well as some UV mapping stuff too, but hey ho

Thanks for the enhanced list. I like the arbitrary scale and uv edge loop selection (long over due!).

Pinch tool is a good step, but inflate would be a nice compliment.

I will hold out hope that autodesk is not positioning maya to simply be a animation, dynamics, and rigging application and at some point they will come back and update both the polygon and nurbs tool sets.

I'm #4 not to know!

Jay...Mate!....check your e-mail!....
there has been one stagnate in there for 3 weeks now..LoL
i'd began to wonder if you croaked and forgot to tell me mate.

anyway, Bakc to maya...
Nextool? i...feel ashamed...i don't recall everyign ahving heard of it, or i have forgotten if i did.

After looking at the new list provided of upgrades to maya, i will say i seem to think that these coud be usefull.

New File Browser
Tabbed browsing for Attribute Editor and Channel Box
Drag and Drop interactivity
Most of the modeling can be atleast semi useful.
The improved time warping could be useful. though i'm not sure how much simple key-framing the attributes could get hen they already are.
i can see many uses for this :Point on Poly constraint:

ohh hell I'll say this..
IT does seem better then the initial link posted ( no offense to jay's kindness in posting said link). but i will still agree that while i still find Maya to be the best overall graphics solution i do believe that it is time that Auto desk implement many new or upgraded tools into maya.
There will soon come a time when the advantages that Maya has in adding plugins to make up for its short comings, and its Dynamics and animation capabilities. will no longer give it the needed edge if auto desk doesn't stat to catch up with the curve.

That being said, i still love maya, it like an old faithful dog I've had around for years. and i think with the proper TLC from auto desk, it still has plenty of years of usefulness left in it.


G-man

And hey! They added the 'spin edges' tool! The script for this has only been around for what? Two? Three? Four years now? :D

Ha yeah Nitro, the Spin faces tool, yeah its gotta be as old as that easily.

The new list is still pretty cack though in the modelling dept.

LOZ: yeah I have read it mate just replying has been an effort lately, been working lates and weekends so getting home and back on the PC has been an effort to say the least


will reply soon

J

They did center on the more non modeling tool sets within maya,
I think if i had to guess its mostly because they recognize that maya has fallen behind as a modeling tool but still holds the forte for a lot of other tool sets.. One can only hope they planned to fortify its standing there with animation and dynamics, only so the next release could bring the modeling tools back up to par once more?...

I understand you've been busy mate, no worries.
Just glad you're alive.
you might want to wait till i get a chance to mail you again before you reply anyway as, that one is so far out of date, you'd be replying to things that arn't a factor anymore LoL

G-man

On one of those screen shots it does look like theres a setting for a linear workflow in MR, that will save a mess about.

One thing anyone got used to nparticles yet?

Think i'm getting old, just use them and get frustrated and go back to original ones! Just thought of that as i'm making an object burst into sparks and just went for ol school ones!

On the modeling side, it makes maya easier to teach to people if the tools stay the same!

It does help if the tools stay the same, but Im asking to add even better tools to make the job better and more productive....every other software does.

Yeah man, totally agree with you, was just messing about.

well i must say my last purchase was maya2010 only because of stability with mental ray as for modelling i dont think i can complain too much about maya i usually get the work done
as for jay and the rest of the modellers whats the use of spending 2k plus on upgrading if nuthin really has changed i vote maya 7 the best i ever used

Murambi

Absolutely. I still use Maya 2008 with custom plugins, I didnt even worry with 2009 0r 2010 and this next version will be overlooked too, unless theres a huge leap in the software development next time round and something in there to make me wanna buy it, I'll be staying put and my 2K will be spent on something more practical like a family holiday or a party with friends and hookers LOL, or even more fishing gear for the coming season!!

Steve: cool mate np

cheers
Jay

Yeah spot on.

I've had the privilege of using maya 8.5 upwards to 2010 and i'm sure that I will be using 2011 when it comes out too, and in all honestly theres not been much difference on the modelling front at all.

You going big for the fishing season Jay? Going to try and get out for a bit this year, didnt make the most of it last year.

Hey Steve

Yeah, been out in the cold, but the big freeze has really put the carp off taking the baits. Only a couple of guys have had takes recently since it thawed, one guy took a 54pound mirror carp last week while the rest of us just looked and sulked LOL. Im waitng a few weeks now until easter, let it warm up a bit.

If you are down here bring your gear I'll take you to our lakes here


later
Jay