Looks like Maya is back in 2021 as well as a slew of updates for 3dsMax and Motion Builder.
Maya 2022
Lots of enhancements for film such as USD support. I love the animation tools here having used them for my school projects it’s much easier to use and learn if you want to get into animation.
I have been itching to try Blender but seeing this release I feel confident that I might stick with Maya and 3ds Max (3d Studio max). There are cheaper version of the two programs for projects under $100K.
One new interesting feature is the Create VR Mode.
http://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/210324_Maya2022_CreateVR.webm?_=1
Read more on the updates in the Docs.
Games from scratch has the updates on the 3 software updates and CG Channel.
3DS Max
Not much mentioned about the 3dsmax updates online since Maya is the more popular one. But overall I have been a long time Max user when it was called 3D Studio Max. Most of the enhancements are for game Modelling. Seems like a good release with the arnold updates.
Read the DOCS here:
https://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2022/ENU/?guid=GUID-E12C6DDA-8AC5-44BC-9022-D3C034CA504E
Motion Builder 2022
Not much online about Motionbuilder but it’s history has been an animation editior tool for mocap. But it’s nice it got some updates since 2015, that was the last version I tried as a trial. Read more at CG Channel.
Maya also like Max has a cheaper version for projects under $100K. Which is Good for smaller projects or freelancers.
You can take a look at the timeline of Maya updates since 2016.
https://area.autodesk.com/timelines/maya/
Hopefully some of the updates in Maya will enhance proceduralism generation such as Bitfrost. I believe Max has some procedural tools with the Particles systems but I have not explored much there.
I would prefer to get the Media and Entertainment collection if I had more resources as it’s a cheaper deal than buying the software individually.
Links:
https://gamefromscratch.com/3ds-max-maya-and-motionbuilder-2022-released/
- https://www.autodesk.com/collections/media-entertainment/overview?us_oa=dotcom-us&us_si=043020cb-5ff9-41e0-92df-5402cb4aac62&us_st=motion&us_pt=MECOLL&term=1-YEAR
- http://www.cgchannel.com/2021/03/autodesk-releases-3ds-max-2022/
- http://www.cgchannel.com/2021/03/autodesk-releases-motionbuilder-2022/
