The 3D Studio MAX is the very popular and effective design 3d software. Maya is a 3d cad software product that is not so popular; however, rich opportunities, provided by the creators of this system, are appreciated by the constructors and designers. Let us take a closer look at this software.
Maya also allows the creation of animated movies, nevertheless, it is not the main system's purpose, and though, the Maya abilities in this area are much higher than the 3D MAX., Maya provides such abilities as a common animation and a character animation. Tasks in these areas could be performed with the help of the tools for key frame and nonlinear animation. The last type requires a more detailed overview.
Starting from the third version, Maya includes a Trax editor. This is an editor of nonlinear animation. The Trax allows to create animations with a set of the complex and overlapping movements. The nonlinear animation concept is very powerful for today as the artist is able to assemble some animated clips instead of working with separated movements with the help of this technique.
The Maya 3d cad system provides high level tools for the creation, editing and animation of the complex and realistic characters.
Deformers are also very powerful tools for the modeling and animation. These tools are in a very efficient use for the deformations.
Therefore, the main properties of the 3d cad system are created for the modeling and designing. The Maya supports the polygonal modeling with a full set of tools, directed towards the purposes of the games and other interactive applications. The Spline modeling in the 3d cad system is the best technology for the building and editing of spline rows and surfaces at the base of Alias developments. The subdivision modeling is supported by a set of tools for the hierarchical surfaces modeling in a combination with the hierarchical polygonal grids.
Modeling of solid objects is another leading functionality of the Maya 3d cad software. Complex objects of organic forms with a behavior set by an external physic powers are very popular targets for this activity. A fast and precise control in the dynamic mode performs the dynamic modeling of the solid objects.
Maya allows the creation of models for the behavior of fields and particles, controlled by an external influence.
The 3d cad system also includes the Maya Artisan interface. This interface is based on the usage of the objects sensitive to the brushes clicking. This part of the system is available for the creation of the 3d sculptures and drawing with the objects attributes.
The Maya Paint Effects is a unique 2.5D drawing technology. This component of the 3d cad system is used to create the scenes with a high complexity and detailed elaboration.
Maya provides some other programming tools that can be useful for the artists. The High quality programming rendering provides rich opportunities for the interactive editing with up-to-date visual effects. This feature provides an additional hardware buffer for the acceleration of the data output.