LightStorm3D has recently released the Deformation plugin for Maya, L3Deformer 1.0 which includes a Surface, Curve, Texture, and Collision deformer, each with their own settings and options. The L3Deformer for Maya is Windows only for the moment, however other platforms are in the planning stage. The L3Deformer carries a price of 149.00€ (plus VAT) and bulk pricing starts with 2 licenses.

L3Deformer – Create Texture Deformer from Lightstorm3D on Vimeo.

L3Deformer – Create Collision Deformer from Lightstorm3D on Vimeo.

L3Deformer – Create Curve Deformer from Lightstorm3D on Vimeo.

L3Deformer – Create Surface Deformer from Lightstorm3D on Vimeo.

“We are proud to announce the release of the L3Deformer bundle for Maya 2011/2012 on Windows. In its initial version the deformer package includes a surface, curve, texture and collision deformer, each coming with a vast amount of settings and options. For more detailed information please refer to the L3Deformer overview. The price has been set to 149,00€ (plus VAT). Bulk pricing starts at the purchase of 2 licenses. Feel free to contact us for discount details. Licenses are node locked. There is currently neither a student nor a trial version available. Thanks to everyone who has been following and supporting us during the past six weeks. We got a lot of feedback based on the previews shown during that time and closed beta reports. We have fixed all glitches that popped up, added new features and made a lot of performance improvements. To all those asking for Linux and OSX versions: Your voice has been heard loud and clear and both version are currently in the planning stage. We are currently working on support tools and extensions of the L3Deformer package to broaden its range of applications even more. More information will follow in the next few weeks. New tutorial videos and sample scenes are also in the making.”

 

Interestingly enough, LightStorm3D has also released core libraries for Maya that the companies tools and product were based on, provided free. LightStorm3D notes “L3Library is the core library we base our tools on. It provides Maya nodes, commands and scripted classes and functions. This lays the foundation for shared functionality and a framework for repititive tasks such as UI creation and automation.”

You can download this library for free. It is provided “as is” and its content and functionality may change at any time. Hence you should take care when trying to build your own tools based on nodes, classes and functions from this library. At some point we may start to document internal library classes and functions and make them usable for your own tools.

The freely released L3D Libraries for Maya inlcude:

Python Libraries

  • L3_coreLib
  • Base library with scripting, data manipulation and math functions
  • L3_nodeLib
  • Node and attribute handling
  • L3_uiLib
  • UI creation, callbacks, value querying and editing, UI – node data exchange, automated option variables

API Commands

  • L3Fingerprint
  • Creates a software and hardware fingerprint used to license our tools

API Nodes

  • L3AnimCurveWrapper
  • Wrapper node that makes animation curves animatable. This node is a pure data container and has no functionality on its own.
  • L3TimeToFrame
  • Convert Maya’s time to a double value without time conversion

The library also includes bug fixes for known Maya limitations. To activate these bug fixes you must set environment variables in the Maya.env file.

Timeline Update Fix
When loading a scene file the time slider is not set to the current frame but stays at zero. To activate the bugfix add the following line to the Maya.env file:
L3TimelineUpdateFix = 1