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Maya 8 Arrives for Mac

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chickenfriednic

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 10, 2006
3
0
I've just found out that Maya 8 is due for release on OS X today (if you are a platinum service member via download) or on 14th August for normal customers. This is good news for us Mac Maya users but BAD news if your an Intel user :( It appears that Autodesk have no plans to release a Universal Binary version of the software as even though Maya is written using Xcode the R&D team have deemed the porting task to be a MAJOR one!! Nice one Jobs, what was all that Bull about programs written in Xcode be able to port to universal easily!! I guess not. So how long will the updates for Maya on a Mac last with the imminent release of the Mac Pro..............:confused:
 
I believe that Steve Jobs said that properly-written applications could be ported easily. Besides, if you believe everything he says, there is more of a problem there than you realise.

It's good that Maya 8 is available but, just like Adobe and so many others at the high-end, when will things be fully compatible? I hope there still aren't high-end printers/offset presses that aren't compatible with Mac OS X but I bet there are a few.
 
chickenfriednic said:
I've just found out that Maya 8 is due for release on OS X today (if you are a platinum service member via download) or on 14th August for normal customers. This is good news for us Mac Maya users but BAD news if your an Intel user :( It appears that Autodesk have no plans to release a Universal Binary version of the software as even though Maya is written using Xcode the R&D team have deemed the porting task to be a MAJOR one!! Nice one Jobs, what was all that Bull about programs written in Xcode be able to port to universal easily!! I guess not. So how long will the updates for Maya on a Mac last with the imminent release of the Mac Pro..............:confused:
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From almost day one I have heard 3D programs are the hardest of all programs to port and I don't recall anyone (Jobs included) claiming that Maya would be a snap. Maya is going to be ported to Intels, I'm not sure where you are hearing otherwise.

I am thankful that Autodesk is going to keep Maya on the Mac. I don't know of any graphic pros that are going to jump to the Intels before all the software is ready, that's just going to take time. Adobe is not coming to the party until next year. Until then everything is running fine on the Power Mac.

I have Maya 8 but no time yet to play with it. :(
 
chickenfriednic said:
It appears that Autodesk have no plans to release a Universal Binary version
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I think it's a mistake to say they have no plans to. Porting a complex 3D rendering app has to be pretty close to a worst-case for switching over, because it probably uses processor optimizations and things like Altivec very heavily. So I'm sure it's a good deal more difficult than just flipping the Universal Binary switch. That said, Cinema4D is also a high-performance, cross-platform, complex 3D app and they came out with a Universal Binary very, very quickly and the Intel performance on Mac is excellent. :rolleyes:
 
redAPPLE said:
which 3d app has the easiest learning curve? some say lightwave 3d. is this a fact?
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No good 3D app has an easy leaning curve. I have Lightwave and Maya but I would say Maya before Lightwave. Maya is very intense and complex but very well organized and very powerful, Lightwave is (in my opinion, others like Mr Anderson will disagree :) ) an organizational nightmare. I have seen some great stuff done in Lightwave but I personally found the interface to be insanely stupid. ZBrush is a great app but is primarily used as a organic modeler, not as a full on 3D app. A lot of users use ZBrush as a supplement to other 3D apps. I don't use Cinema 4D but a lot of people would say its a great 3D app to start with. It depends on how far you want to go with 3D. Try Cinema 4D if you want a great overall app that can do a lot of great things and Maya if you want the very best of the best. Maya will humble even the most hard core user but it it's an insanely great app if you want play with very best.


 
I agree with ATD that the interface of Lightwave is archaic and atrocious. Tough place to start. Personally I love Cinema4D. It has a great interface that I find somehow very Mac-like, even though it's cross-platform and it just has a great workflow, IMO the best of all the major 3D packages. There used to be things like Ray Dream, Infini-D, and Truespace that were fairly easy for 3D beginner apps, I'm not sure what they would be today. Maybe Carrera? But anyway I also agree with ATD that 3D is going to have a steep learning curve no matter what. It's a very complex discipline that requires using both sides of your brain and lots of patience, you should know that before deciding to jump in. Major 3D applications (Maya, Cinema4D, Lightwave, Blender, etc.) are easily some of the deepest, most complex apps you will ever encounter in any area, and some people devote their lives to learning and using just one of them (with a lot of plugins, scripting, and ancillary applications, of course).
 
HiRez said:
Major 3D applications (Maya, Cinema4D, Lightwave, Blender, etc.) are easily some of the deepest, most complex apps you will ever encounter in any area, and some people devote their lives to learning and using just one of them (with a lot of plugins, scripting, and ancillary applications, of course).
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I would go as far as saying that some people devote their lives to learning just a small part of the apps. If you look at the end credits of major effects movies (LOTR for example) you will see a long lists of 3D artists broken down to lots of sub categories. Many these people devoted years at becoming good at just a small part of Maya (along with other apps, Maya is the most widely used in movies). Disciplines like hard surface modeling, organic modeling, rigging, skinning, animation, motion capture, camera work, lighting, texturing, rendering, hard body dynamics, soft body dynamics, hair/fur, fluids, particles, paint effects and scripting are all just small parts of the larger app. It is actually rare to find someone who can claim to be very good to expert at all the aspects of one of the major 3D apps.



 
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