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PRODUCT REVIEWS
THE SKINNY ON NEW TOOLS
Doing a "complete" review of a product with the scope of Maya 4.5 is a monumental task, so I considered my approach carefully. Given that my role at Rockstar San Diego is primarily one of a modeler and MEL guy, I decided to focus on what I know best and use the most, while also giving a circumspect look at the more intriguing offerings among this version of Maya's new features.
For an incremental update, Alias|Wavefront has presented in Maya 4.5 a fair number of advancements, including Fluid Effects, Smooth Proxy, a large number of API enhancements, new (and groovy) snapping tools, sub-d to NURBS conversion, interface changes that facilitate better workflow, and new polygon and beveling tools. But are these improvements significant enough to warrant an upgrade? Productivity and creativity are co-rulers of the game-art world, so I'll try to relate how these new features affected my workflow and my ability to translate my ideas to the screen.
Fluid effects. Based on my experience of using water plug-ins in the past, I tend to be intimidated by anything that has the words "fluid dynamics" in it. However, the Maya Fluid Effects package is actually very usable, with a great amount of depth if you need more out of it than the preset values (which are numerous). Our effects artists around the office are using this new functionality a lot and digging it.
Workflow improvements. I've been using Alias|Wavefront's Bonus Games Package of plug-ins (available on the Alias|Wavefront web site for Maya 4.0.x) for a while now, so some of the workflow enhancements integrated into 4.5 are old hat to me, but they are nevertheless a huge step up in usability. Alias|Wavefront...