Maya Complete Versus Maya Unlimited: What More Would You Get?

Maya Complete Versus Maya Unlimited: What More Would You Get?

Maya Complete contains a majority of Maya's features, and most animators are fully served by it. This book covers only the features of Maya Complete. Four unique modules are added for those who purchase the upgrade to Maya Unlimited:

• Cloth This module allows the user to define a clothing pattern and stitch it to a character, and have the cloth move realistically in reaction to the character's motions . You can simulate cloth-like effects with good results using Maya Complete's soft-body dynamics, but for characters wearing clothes, Maya Unlimited offers an elegant and complete solution.

• Fur Like cloth, the fur applied with this module moves realistically in reaction to motions of the character it's applied to. It also calculates and renders quickly. It's not designed to create the effect of long hair. You can simulate fur with good results using Maya Complete's Paint Effects, but it doesn't bounce in reaction to character movement and takes longer to render.

• Live This module can analyze live-action footage, deduce the camera position, and then create a virtual camera in Maya that's animated exactly the same as the real-world camera. This feature enables perfect compositions of CGI elements into filmed real-world backgrounds, as well as putting filmed foreground objects (usually filmed against a blue screen) into CGI environments.

• Fluids New for version 4.5, fluids allow quick and realistic simulations of smoke, fire, clouds, liquids, lava, and other viscuous materials. Also included is a water and terrain simulator for making such environments as turbulent oceans or craggy mountainscapes. A full palette of settings appears in Visor for installations of Maya Unlimited 4.5.

These modules, when enabled, appear seamlessly in Maya as additional pull- downs or modes. A few other features are included only with Maya Unlimited: NURBS booleans, the Round tool, and Global Stitching. These features are timesavers, but their essential function is available in Maya Complete by taking several steps to accomplish the same end result.