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Alias|Wavefront's Maya Paint Effects 1.0, Macintosh and Windows resolution independent version, is a large, sweeping application style plug-in utility for the After Effects compositing and effects editing community.
Most graphics professionals have know about the Alias|Wavefront brand and its flagship Maya product for a number of years. Those of us that are longer in the tooth will remember when they were separate 3D companies but that's history. This latest 2D offering from AW is not just new but bound to shake and rattle a few preconceptions about what a composite package is and what it can do.
The Maya Touch
Before we cut to the chase, I should mention that Maya Paint Effects is built on the same technology and rendering power that has made Maya a favorite of high-end visual effects houses worldwide. Virtually every major effects film in recent years has used Maya extensively in at least one way if not several. What Alias|Wavefront seems to have wrought for the compositing "masses" is a very unorthodox and potent filter. I'd say it isn't too much of an exaggeration to call this tool a kind of mini paint "Maya light" and that makes it a heavyweight for desktop 2D artists.
In Alias|Wavefront's own language: "Maya Paint Effects is a particle-based paint system with customizable, creative brush types." Though an accurate description, it fails to hint at the capability of what is available here. Maya PE comes with 29 broad grades of highly editable brushes and at 200 total brushes strong, we are only at the tip of a graphics iceberg. Beyond that, hundreds more brushes are available from Alias|Wavefront at no cost other than download time. Maya Paint shares the general look of most After Effects filters but even a short time spent with this tool will make comparisons relatively meaningless. Either of its two chief plug-ins-PFX STROKE or PFX WRITE-ON-is capable of results difficult or impossible to achieve outside of 3D animation programs.
PFX Stroke allows artists and editors to generate a virtually limitless variety of...