At GDC this week, Autodesk is announcing the release of Maya LT 2016. Maya LT is a stripped down version of Maya aimed at the indie game market. It also comes with a massively stripped 
down price tag and a monthly subscription option. When Maya LT was first announced it had a number of glaring limitations. In the time since, many of those have been removed and several new features have been added.
The full press release follows:
Available March 26, 2015, Maya LT 2016 is packed with new features and advancements that accelerate modeling and animation, enabling indie developers to seamlessly deliver standout visuals for their games.
“In setting up an indie studio and producing our first independent title, Maya LT provided us with a games making application second to none in terms of 3D game asset creation,” said Oliver Clarke, director, co-founder, Modern Dream. “For us, Maya LT is now an irreplaceable part of creating unique and vibrant games that stand out in a super competitive marketplace.”
The new release includes:
– Integrated Sculpting Tools and UV editing tools: Brush-based sculpting in Maya LT now facilitates high level sculpting on models, without the need to export to a different tool, while new UV brushes (interactive cut/sew edge tool, automatic projection, pinning, weld, split, and unfold brushes) provide an intuitive, artistic-driven workflow.
– Advanced Animation and Game Exporter Tool: New Spline IK and cluster deformation help users easily animate non-humanoid characters; a Game Exporter update simplifies the management and export of multiple animation clips, making it easier for indie artists to export multiple animations for use in a game engine simultaneously.
– Physically-Based ShaderFX Nodes and user-submitted improvements: Physically-based shading material allows artists to design more realistic and high quality materials, for higher-quality assets. User submitted enhancements include: background texture loading, allowing artists to begin working without waiting for an entire scene to load; a customizable default lighting environment that standardizes the appearance of imported assets; and a fog effect in the viewport to focus on the object closest to the viewport camera.
– Creative Market content storefront: Last year, Autodesk acquired Creative Market – an online content marketplace serving more than 690,000 artists and designers. On March 26, Maya LT users will be able to purchase 3D content from a dedicated content landing page curated specifically for game makers. Users can visit the page directly from within the Maya LT app or by visiting: https://creativemarket.com/apps/mayalt .
Maya LT is available as a Desktop Subscription with pay-as-you-go monthly, quarterly and annual options. For more information about Autodesk’s GDC 2015 lineup and other activities, visit: area.autodesk.com/gdc2015 .
Will be interesting to see how the content store approach works. It seems like everyone wants to be in the online store business these days! Regardless, so pretty exciting new features in this release. As stated in the press release, Maya LT 2016 is released March 26th.
Art News