Maya 2019 Has Cached Playback for Better Animation

The Latest Release, Maya 2019 offers cached playback as a background process saving animators from playblast wait times.

Autodesk released Maya 2019, and one of the more significant features is the introduction of a new cached playback engine. The system is targeting animators with the promise of shorter wait times and fewer playblast generation.

Cached playback works seamlessly as a background process – It’s pretty much a set it and forget it type of thing. The caching system continually evaluates and caches data from the Maya scene, and it does this per frame. When you hit the play button, you get better speeds directly in Viewport 2, eliminating the need to playblast.

Chached Playback is similar but works differently than a geometry cache in that it is essentially “live.” You don’t need to generate new caches when you make changes; everything is seamless as you work. A new blue line indicates cached animations in Maya’s timeline. If you’ve worked with After Effects or other compositors, the caching system will feel familiar.

You’re going to spend a lot more time animating and a lot less time waiting, so you can create better animations.

 

Autodesk Maya 2019 is Here

Featuring New Tools and Performance Enhancements for Faster Animation, Improved Working Environments, Higher Quality Previews and Improved Pipeline Integration

San Francisco, CA (January 15, 2019) – Today, Autodesk has launched Maya 2019, the latest version of its popular 3D animation, modeling, simulation and rendering software, featuring significant updates to help artists achieve their creative vision within a faster, more interactive and visually engaging working environment. Maya 2019 addresses the key challenges artists face throughout production, providing faster animation playback to reduce the need for playblasts, higher quality 3D previews with Autodesk Arnold updates in viewport 2.0, improved pipeline integration with more flexible development environment support, and performance improvements that most Maya artists will notice in their daily work.
“The more you can make the technology behave and get out of the artists’ way, the more they can keep their thought process fluid. With Cached Playback, animators can iterate more, and they totally love that.” – Christopher Moore, Technical Program Manager, Blue Sky Studios

 

“The new features in Maya 2019 give artists a more responsive working environment so they feel more creatively engaged and can iterate faster to produce better quality. Cached Playback is going to reduce the need for playblasts by animators, and Arnold updates take the guesswork out of the equation, by making viewport previews closer to the final Arnold render.” – Chris Vienneau, sr. director, Media & Entertainment Products, Autodesk

 

“We’re not looking to make it so our artists get more shots per week off their plate. We’re doing this so we can set the bar even higher for the quality of art we can produce.” – Hank Driskill, CTO, Blue Sky Studios

 

Key new Maya 2019 features include:
  • Faster Animation: New cached playback increases animation playback speeds in viewport 2.0, giving animators a more interactive and responsive animating environment to produce better quality animations. It helps reduce the need to produce time-consuming playblasts to evaluate animation work, so animators can work faster.
  • Higher Quality Previews Closer to Final Renders: Arnold upgrades improve real-time previews in viewport 2.0, allowing artists to preview higher quality results that are closer to the final Arnold render for better creativity and less wasted time.
  • Faster Maya: New performance and stability upgrades help improve daily productivity in a range of areas that most artists will notice in their daily work.
  • Refining Animation Data: New filters within the graph editor make it easier to work with motion capture data, including the Butterworth filter and the key reducer to help refine animation curves.
  • Rigging Improvements: New updates help make the work of riggers and character TDs easier, including the ability to hide sets from the outliner to streamline scenes, improvements to the bake deformer tool and new methods for saving deformer weights to more easily script rig creation.
  • Pipeline Integration Improvements: Development environment updates make it easier for pipeline and tool developers to create, customize and integrate into production pipelines.
  • Help for Animators in Training: Sample rigged and animated characters, as well as motion capture samples, make it easier for students to learn and quickly get started animating.

 

Maya 2019 is available today as a standalone subscription or with a collection of end-to-end creative tools within the Autodesk Media & Entertainment Collection. For more information, visit: https://www.autodesk.com/products/maya/overview
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