mentalcore for maya beta 1

Core-CG have released the first Beta of MentalCore, the Shading and rendering pipeline for Autodesk Maya. See Core-CG to participate.  MentalCore, created by Corey Frew a Pipeline TD,  is designed to improve the quality and workflow for Mentalray inside Maya. MentalCore dramatically improves pass rendering, and is built as a fast and efficient workflow for artists and studios.

MentalCore is a shading and rendering pipeline for Mentalray for Maya. Its a easy to use system, built around a set of custom shaders, with a interface thats tightly intergrated with Maya. Some features include:

• Core Globals: The hub of the Core pipeline, it provides all the settings for output settings, render passes, colour managerment, global occlusion settings, environment lighting, camera and lens settings and more.
• Core Material: A univerial shader thats well suited for animation, thats somewhere between the built-in Maya materials and the Mental Images Architectural shader. It provides a selection of specular types and advanced reflection and refraction controls as well as being energy conserving.
• Core Mia: A wrapped version of Mental Images Architectural shader, combined with the powerful features of the Core Globals and passes.
• Core Paint: A wrapped version of Mental Images Car Paint shader, combined with the powerful features of the Core Globals and passes. (Not available in Beta1)
• Core Hair: A hair and fur shader with full support for all the Core features such as environment lighting and passes. (Not available in Beta1)
• Core Environment: A environment shader with the ability to specify different textures for ray types (Reflection/Refraction, Environment Light etc).
• Core Material Blend: A optimized layered material shader for blending between multiple materials and retaining support for render passes. Perfect for effects such as peeling paint on wood, and reduces the need to create multiple maps for various shader attributes. Supports up to 8 coat materials. (Not available in Beta1)
• Utility Shaders: A collection of other useful shaders such as a texture blend shader, randomizer shader and more.