Maya 2016 EXT 2: a pretty dam huge update.

artquest

http://www.gamefromscratch.com/post/2016/04/20/Autodesk-Release-Maya-2016-Extensions-2.aspx

Ohh man they finally copied the functionality of pre selection highlighting from softimage. So many good things happened this release. I'm super happy. That being said... it's all stuff we've been asking for for like... the last 5 years. But better late then never!

Biggest things fixed:

- Preselection highlighting
- Bevel (Maya now has a better bevel then 3ds max ladies and gents!) Never thought I would see the day...
-Symmetry works with everything now.
-Uv Symmetry
- Uv layout tool now has UDIM support
- Uv layout tool now has prescale options and align shell rotations to world axis.
- Mirror mesh no longer merges extra verts along center line!

Let the games begin, Huzzah!

EDIT: I'll drop the modeling/uv update vid directly here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHN8Qzermhk

JedTheKrampus

Hot damn, a good bevel? I might have to check Maya out again in a bit.

kolayamit

This update is really amazing 

Fansub

You forgot MASH,which is probably the best new thing that happened to Maya in the last 5 years imho !

https://vimeo.com/163408494

This tool will make simple objects like chains almost easier to make than a beveled cube,and you can push it to the next limits by using it to scatter objects across a scene,or have super advanced custom FX going around.

Also,you can now boolean a non-closed shape AFAIK

throttlekitty

Looks delicious!

nikola3d

New "auto-rigg" is very good and easy tool for posing character, as I've seen

Burpee

They could have call this Maya 2017 I wouldn't have been surprised ! Amazing update

oglu

for me the hero feature is the new blendshape system... specially the delta smooth brush... and the PSD deformer...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MAwYfoB7gL0

Justo

Really glad they had the galls to not call it 2017 and instead do big patches like Pixologic does. Good on you Maya! 

bounchfx

edit: had an issue using my hotkeys with the update. had to go in and change the "hotkey set" top left of the hotkey editor to 'user'. I don't remember having to do this in the past but it threw me for a loop this time. Make sure to double check that if you're having hotkey issues.

edit 2: just finished watching. some solid stuff overall, love the improvements. UV unwrapping still is criminally behind most common scripts like textools and uv deluxe (match UVs! straighten both ways! both super handy for environment modeling), so hopefully that gets more love later, but this is definitely a great update overall for many reasons.

illbleed

how does one update to this version?

oglu

you have to be subcription member... it should update automatically via the autodesk app...

dur23

So basically, they got all their new softimage engineers to implement all the stuff that's been in softimage since 2008.  

artquest

dur23 said:

So basically, they got all their new softimage engineers to implement all the stuff that's been in softimage since 2008.  

Actually this is quite true I think I think it's actually one of the better ideas autodesk has had.

beefaroni

Extension 2 feels great. I used to have a hotkey to toggle between the regular move manipulator and the modelling toolkit manipulator because they functioned so differently from one another. Glad to say that the default manipulator in 2016 ext 2 combines the best of both. 

Making hotkeys is not longer a pain in the ass either.

Have yet to really try any of the modelling tools super in-depth but I'm working on that one now

In my opinion, this is the first Maya release in awhile that has really made me excited to try out the new modelling/uving features. Hopefully nothing critical breaks in the full release of 2017. 

Autocon

Oh damn, they finally fixed the horrible selection mode where even hovering over verts/edges sometimes wouldn't select the one you wanted. Happy day

illbleed

oglu said:

you have to be subcription member... it should update automatically via the autodesk app...

So nothing for student version?

beefaroni

Hmm running into some pretty large bugs with the scale tool and the hotbox from time to time. Sometimes the scale tool will not center on the selection (on cylinders this is killing me). Undo seems to have a bit of a hiccup compared to 2014. Doesn't feel quite as smooth. 

Here's a screen of the hotbox problem.
https://i.gyazo.com/dc53066859cff27fc05ed203da9bdae7.png

Edit: The hotbox for selecting verts/polys etc also doesnt seem quite as smooth as 2014. I'm really not sure what it is. Just slightly less snappy. 

Probably going to wait till a service pack to get back to it. 

artquest

beefaroni said:

Hmm running into some pretty large bugs with the scale tool and the hotbox from time to time. Sometimes the scale tool will not center on the selection (on cylinders this is killing me). Undo seems to have a bit of a hiccup compared to 2014. Doesn't feel quite as smooth. 

Here's a screen of the hotbox problem.
https://i.gyazo.com/dc53066859cff27fc05ed203da9bdae7.png

Edit: The hotbox for selecting verts/polys etc also doesnt seem quite as smooth as 2014. I'm really not sure what it is. Just slightly less snappy. 

Probably going to wait till a service pack to get back to it. 

I know they changed over to QT 5.0 this release for all UI related stuff so I'm not surprised that you're seeing these. I actually got both those issues during the beta quite a bit. I thought they fixed it. Guess I was wrong I'll let autodesk know. 

beefaroni

Ya it's unfortunate because as a whole the modelling upgrades are fantastic. Thanks for passing that along!

seb3d

for the marking menu problem: unloading vray fixed it for me. still should be fixed permanently but as temp workaround this might work for you as well.

oglu

some MASH tutorials
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw04xez3gafdeVS2WSv1OXw

artquest

New video on some specific modeling improvements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=293&v=3alXksTs6HI

kodde

I was also all excited about MASH.
Quite early on tried the Audio Driven Scale. Works nicely. Next logical thing, at least in my mind, coloring based on audio level or even object scale. Got stuck at this point. Not that straightforward as one might think.

Tried using the python node to connect the per particle scale to the per particle output color but not been successful yet. Anyone managed this?

oglu

Kostats you should ask that on the Soup forum.
The MASH devs (ianwaters) are active there.
http://soup-dev.websitetoolbox.com/post/maya-extension2-8085628

Pizdos

So, the BEST thing that could be integrated into Maya was a true auto-rig feature. Looks like Maya fail to deliver that, since you need to massive retouch weight after so called auto-rig. I feel that Mixamo was years of light forward with their autorig feature.

So since, the Maya autorig is just as good a Blender one, I really do not find any justification for Maya price. I just wonder.. why give a buggy tool??

oglu

the thing is... most studios dont want an autorig tool at all...

Pizdos

well, i did not considered that, haha!

dur23

artquest said:

dur23 said:

So basically, they got all their new softimage engineers to implement all the stuff that's been in softimage since 2008.  

Actually this is quite true I think I think it's actually one of the better ideas autodesk has had.

The problem, however is that softimage was built to be a specific way from the ground up. Basically flawless integration of tools from the base on up.  Where as maya was built  a completely different way (maya: there's a plugin for that). The "modeling toolkit" is a perfect example of this. In softimage it was just the regular old tweak mode which was activated by pressing m. In maya, it looks and feels like a plugin, mostly because it is. 

Either way, it's nice that i can finally organically model in maya now, especially because they murdered my lover. 

oglu

yes Trevor is doing a god job...
he did also the xsi modeling tools...

thomasp

Pizdos said:

well, i did not considered that, haha!

i'd go further and say maya was never intended to be anything other than a flexible toolbox for studios to adapt to their ways of working. quite unsuited to the 1 man art machine approach which is where you would expect auto riggers and shortcuts like user friendly renderers and such to come in. from the start they should have shipped maya with a scripting guy in the box really.

artquest

dur23 said:

artquest said:

dur23 said:

So basically, they got all their new softimage engineers to implement all the stuff that's been in softimage since 2008.  

Actually this is quite true I think I think it's actually one of the better ideas autodesk has had.

The problem, however is that softimage was built to be a specific way from the ground up. Basically flawless integration of tools from the base on up.  Where as maya was built  a completely different way (maya: there's a plugin for that). The "modeling toolkit" is a perfect example of this. In softimage it was just the regular old tweak mode which was activated by pressing m. In maya, it looks and feels like a plugin, mostly because it is. 

Either way, it's nice that i can finally organically model in maya now, especially because they murdered my lover. 

The modeling toolkit in maya 2016 EXT 2 is finally what I would call "fully integrated" They replaced all the old modeling tools with the modeling toolkit versions and cut out the old unneeded stuff.  It took awhile but I have faith in the softimage team    They removed the "two seperate" translate/rotate/scale tools. FINALLY!! Everything is now unified in 2016 EXT2. I used to model all the time in softimage because it was so much better. Now for the first time I can say that maya is feeling like 80 to 90% of what I used to do in softimage. It's truly amazing.   

@PIZDOS yeah, I think we're lucky to get any autorig system at all. Every major studio already wrote their own autorig years ago and their custom one is setup to plug directly into their pipeline or game engine. I think the maya team is really just throwing a bone to small studios and people working on personal projects.

beefaroni

The modeling toolkit in maya 2016 EXT 2 is finally what I would call "fully integrated" They replaced all the old modeling tools with the modeling toolkit versions and cut out the old unneeded stuff.  It took awhile but I have faith in the softimage team    They removed the "two seperate" translate/rotate/scale tools. FINALLY!! Everything is now unified in 2016 EXT2. I used to model all the time in softimage because it was so much better. Now for the first time I can say that maya is feeling like 80 to 90% of what I used to do in softimage. It's truly amazing.   

What GPU are you currently using and does everything with the manipulators work well? The scale tool not respecting the center of a cylinder was a huge problem and I had to go back to 2014 as a result

artquest

beefaroni said:

The modeling toolkit in maya 2016 EXT 2 is finally what I would call "fully integrated" They replaced all the old modeling tools with the modeling toolkit versions and cut out the old unneeded stuff.  It took awhile but I have faith in the softimage team    They removed the "two seperate" translate/rotate/scale tools. FINALLY!! Everything is now unified in 2016 EXT2. I used to model all the time in softimage because it was so much better. Now for the first time I can say that maya is feeling like 80 to 90% of what I used to do in softimage. It's truly amazing.   

What GPU are you currently using and does everything with the manipulators work well? The scale tool not respecting the center of a cylinder was a huge problem and I had to go back to 2014 as a result

If you're not on a nvidia card I would say you're totally screwed. I've never been had a stable maya when using an ATI card. Also be careful of the symmetry setting being turned on when you want to scale objects. It will offset the center and scale only based on half of your cylinder. It's a great feature in many instances but also super annoying when first starting out. Make sure symmetry is turned off if you want to scale from the exact center of your object.

For me the new manipulators have been flawless. I don't think I could revert back to pre EXT 2 anymore for modeling anyway. It's just such a huge workflow boost. Also the sculpt geometry tool has a great feature now called "grab silhouette" on the grab brush which basically means you get a ray/beam with fallof for your move tool/brush instead of a spherical volume.  On top of that you can now bake an object's pivot to another object!!! what black magic is this?! Too good!

Bartalon

Oh man, I'm super excited to install this extension!  The bevel tool enhancements are making my mouth water

beefaroni

If you're not on a nvidia card I would say you're totally screwed. I've never been had a stable maya when using an ATI card. Also be careful of the symmetry setting being turned on when you want to scale objects. It will offset the center and scale only based on half of your cylinder. It's a great feature in many instances but also super annoying when first starting out. Make sure symmetry is turned off if you want to scale from the exact center of your object.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO. I think symmetry could be the reason. Will go home tonight and test! Thank you.

Ya for some reason both at work and at home I've really never run into major AMD issues. Assuming that the issues are AMD related, I'll probably switch back if Nvidia bumps their VRam to a reasonable amount with the next mid/high level card they release. 

Actually, on that note, how does the undo feel in comparison to 2014?

Fansub

I've tried the undo a few times and it's really slow even with the slightest operaion,dunno if it's just specific to my/AMD tho.

kodde

Oglu> Thanks for the tip. I'll have a look at the SOuP forum.

beefaroni

Yay, it works! Back to Maya 2016

Symmetry off.


Symmetry on

Pizdos

artquest said:

@PIZDOS yeah, I think we're lucky to get any autorig system at all. Every major studio already wrote their own autorig years ago and their custom one is setup to plug directly into their pipeline or game engine. I think the maya team is really just throwing a bone to small studios and people working on personal projects.

Blender have an autorig from ages, is not perfect but is still a good starting point. And is free.

Personally, I got surprised how good Mixamo autorig feature is, basically, everything works as expected, including clothes.

Not sure if small studious can afford to spend to much money on a broken tool. But hey.. that's just an opinion.

beefaroni

Hmm a quick bug that I've been running into.

I use ALT-G as a hotkey. A lot of times it will not activate; however, when I press ALT-F first, then ALT-G, it works again. Puzzled.

Another one: Two sided lighting ON


OFF


And that weird piece of geo that wont go either way. Anyways it seems backwards.

beefaroni

Also, trying to find out how to remove all creases. It was a menu option back in 2014. Any idea? If not I'll just make a hotkey with he 2014 command. 

artquest

beefaroni said:

Also, trying to find out how to remove all creases. It was a menu option back in 2014. Any idea? If not I'll just make a hotkey with he 2014 command. 

I think they're expecting everything to be done through the crease set editor. I believe you can just select all your crease sets and click remove? I don't really like that workflow but I think it's all we've got for now lol.

beefaroni

Ahh I see. That's too bad. I've been doing a lot of creasing for zbrush and being able to remove everything in 1 click was very nice.

Also, it looks like they changed the rmb functionality. Before, I could select an object and right click to select face/vert/etc without actually touching the model. Now it seems to select the image plane behind it instead

artquest

They changed the selection code quite a bit. in 90% of cases it's infinitely better. This seems to be a part of the 10% thats bad lol! Also if you want to clear creases you could aways just use my script Since it's a toggle it will clear all creases on the second click.

http://polycount.com/discussion/168879/new-tool-for-maya-autohighpoly-beta

beefaroni

I've been trying your script out on this model. I'll give the clear creases part a shot! Thanks

beefaroni

Got a bit annoyed that it took so long to access custom Axis Orientation so I made this quick quick script to add to a hotbox to reactivate custom axis.

manipScaleContext -e -mode 6 Scale;

manipMoveContext -e -mode 6 Move;

manipRotateContext -e -mode 3 Rotate;

artquest

beefaroni said:

Got a bit annoyed that it took so long to access custom Axis Orientation so I made this quick quick script to add to a hotbox to reactivate custom axis.

manipScaleContext -e -mode 6 Scale;

manipMoveContext -e -mode 6 Move;

manipRotateContext -e -mode 3 Rotate;

am I missing something? I thought you can just press "D" and click an edge/face/very to access custom axis orientation. Or are we talking about something different?

beefaroni

Wow you have to be kidding me. I had no idea they added "D" as a hotkey. I had set to edge and set to face and custom axis orientation toggle as a new hotbox.

LOL

artquest

beefaroni said:

Wow you have to be kidding me. I had no idea they added "D" as a hotkey. I had set to edge and set to face and custom axis orientation toggle as a new hotbox. 

LOL

It's soo epic now. D + shift click matches pivot position only and ctrl click matches orientation only. CTRL + shift + click will set your pivot to X aiming towards what you clicked from your selections center!

MDiamond

I'm super happy to see some of the major quirks that prevented me from having an enjoyable experience modelling in Maya gone. Now if they only added a radial align tool...