One of the best software I used and the modeling and animation tools are the best and industry standards.
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Autodesk Maya is the base of our production pipeline. From modeling to lighting to animation, we use Autodesk Maya almost for everything in our advertising firm. It helps us to create stunning visuals and the availability of multiple plugins for the software, helps us to makes the production faster. Also since its industry standard, many artist knew it before hand when they come to our studio.
Pros
- The tools in Autodesk Maya is excellent for modeling. The tools for retopo are so useful. It really helps creating clean and optimized models for every pipeline.
- The animation tools provided in maya are the best in the industry. Whether its graph editor, node editor or dope sheet, everything is top notch. The referencing system of the software is also top notch.
- The inbuilt render engine like arnold helps creating stunning and realistic visuals with minimal efforts.
Cons
- Autodesk Maya is pretty hard to learn in comparison to other softwares, many people find it very difficult to learn.
- The cost of the software is pretty high and training on the software takes up lot of time and money.
- The lack of procedural pipeline in the software making companies to move towards other softwares like houdini and blender.
Return on Investment
- It helped us to create high quality visuals which created more client leads for us.
- It reduced our training cost slightly as people coming from many studios already knew Autodesk Maya.
- The cost of the license is very high which makes it hard to afford for small studios. Also it also needs high end machines to run which eats up lot of budget.
Usability
Alternatives Considered
Autodesk 3ds Max, Blender and Cinema 4D
Other Software Used
OctaneRender, V-Ray, Houdini
