Features
Powerful character creation, animation and VFX tools
From fantastic creatures to sweeping landscapes and explosive battle sequences, the Academy Award-winning Maya® toolset is a top choice for creating believable characters and the worlds around them.
Dynamics and effects
Video: Bifrost overview video
Bifrost visual programming environment
Create physically accurate and incredibly detailed simulations in a single visual programming environment. (video: 4.49 min.)
Mountain scenery created in Bifrost
Ready-to-use graphs
Create great-looking effects, such as snow and dust storms, right out of the box with prebuilt graphs.
Hair grooming in Maya Interactive hair grooming Use powerful interactive groom tools to create realistic hair and fur for your characters.
Bifrost Fluids Simulate and render photorealistic liquid effects.
Bifrost Ocean Simulation System Create realistic ocean surfaces with waves, ripples and wakes.
Physics and effects Create highly realistic rigid, soft-body, cloth and particle simulations.
Universal Scene Description (USD) workflows NEW | Lighting speed Load and edit massive datasets in a matter of seconds using USD in Maya. NEW | Seamless import/export Import USD data as native Maya data and export native Maya data as USD data. NEW | Lightweight previews See quick previews of USD scene structure using the new Hierarchy View Window. NEW | In-memory USD stage support Work directly with USD data in common Maya editors such as the Outliner and Attribute Editor. NEW | USD in the viewport See USD natively alongside Maya data in the viewport. NEW | Open source and fully customisable The Maya USD plug-in is available as an open-source project for studios to customise as needed. 3D animation Animated clip of a lion Fast playback Review animations faster and produce fewer playblasts with cached playback in Viewport 2.0.
User interface of Time Editor in Maya featuring 3D animation of a guy making the sign of the horns, standing next to a motorcycle Time Editor Make high-level animation edits with a nondestructive, clip-based, nonlinear editor.
Rendering of octopus Graph Editor Create, view and modify animation curves using a graphical representation of scene animation.
NEW | Ghosting Editor Precisely visualise movement and the position of animated objects over time. Deformation effects Enhance character and object animation with powerful deformation effects.
Native Motion Library plug-in Access high-quality motion capture data right in Maya.
Rigging Character setup Create sophisticated skeletons, IK handles and deformers for characters that deliver life-like performances.
Skinning Seamlessly bind any modelled surface to a skeleton using skinning.
Retargeting Easily transfer animation between skeletons that have the same or different skeletal structures.
3D modelling Polygon modelling Create 3D models using geometry based on vertexes, edges and faces.
Macaw modelled in Maya NURBS modelling Construct 3D models from geometric primitives and drawn curves.
Boy with dogs, modelled in Maya UV editing and toolkit View and edit the UV texture coordinates for polygon, NURBS and subdivision surfaces in a 2D view.
Sculpting toolset Sculpt and shape models more artistically and intuitively.
OpenSubdiv support Accelerate performance with interactive workflows.
3D rendering and shading Bubbles rendering in Arnold Integrated Arnold renderer Use Arnold Render View to view scene changes in real time, including lighting, materials and cameras.
Female model rendered in Arnold GPU and CPU rendering Use Arnold for production rendering on both the CPU and GPU.
Robot rendered in Arnold Standard Surface Shader Model materials such as car paint, frosted glass and plastic, and preview renders in the viewport.
Look development with Hypershade Build shading networks by creating and connecting rendering nodes, such as textures, materials and lights.
Colour management See accurate previews of final colours in the viewport and Render View.
Motion graphics MASH procedural effects Use MASH to create versatile motion design animations with procedural node networks.
3D Type Create branding, flying logos, title sequences and other projects that require text.
Adobe Live link View a scene in both Maya and Adobe After Effects at the same time.
Pipeline integration NEW | Python 3 Create Maya scripts and write plug-ins using Python 3. Customisation Customise how Maya looks and works to suit your pipeline.
Scene Assembly tools Create large, complex worlds more easily and manage production assets as discrete elements.