The Motion Graphics in Maya tools and workflows were introduced in the Maya 2016 Extension 2 release, including the Type Tool, SVG Tool, and the MASH Toolkit. Use these 3D motion design tools for creating unique, custom animations for advertising and broadcasting.
Read all about these tools in the What's New in Motion Graphics in Autodesk Maya 2016 Extension 2, as well as in the Motion Graphics playlist on the Maya Learning Channel.
MASH improvements
The MASH Toolkit has undergone a number of improvements. These include:
MASH menu and Workspace
MASH now has its own menu, which you can find in the Animation and FX menu sets. Everything MASH-related that used to be accessible via the Create menu before can now be found here.
Additionally, you can also access MASH functions from the new MASH and Motion Graphics workspaces. For more information, see Workspaces.
MASH Editor
Improved channel handling
You no longer need to apply certain nodes to specific attribute channels. Instead, all nodes now affect all appropriate channels simultaneously. For example, where you previously had to create a Noise node for a network's translation and scale independently (either in local or world space), you can now do both those things from a single Noise node.
Additionally, all nodes now have a single incoming and outgoing connection. This greatly reduces the amount of clutter in the Graph Editor.
New node: Breakout
A new Breakout node replaces the old script-based method of extracting information from MASH networks.
New node: Signal
A new Signal node combines and expands upon the functionality of the old Noise and Trig nodes. It can affect the Translate, Rotate, and Scale channels simultaneously.
New node: Strength
A new Strength node replaces and expands upon the functionality of the old Mute node. It can affect the Translate, Rotate, and Scale channels simultaneously.
Color node: UV Mesh mapping
A new UV Mesh slot has been added to the Color node, which assigns a mesh's UVs to a MASH network to help color its primitives.
Distribute node enhancements
- Support for Face and Edge selection sets, in addition to Vertex selection sets.
- A new Paint Effects distribution mode.
- Support for viewing wireframes of connected meshes.
Flight node: Enhanced steering
New attributes in the Flight node allow points to orient themselves to their current flight direction automatically. Previously you needed to attach an extra Orient node to achieve this behavior.
Trails node: Color Channel compatibility
Trails are now connected to the color channel. Select the Trails node and enable vertex coloring if you want the trails to inherit the colors of any attached Color node.
Time node enhancements
A Random Time Scale attribute has been added to the Time node, allowing you to randomly scale the animation loop length per particle. Also, this node is no longer added automatically when creating a MASH network with the Mesh Geometry Type.
Audio node: Improved functionality
The Audio node has a number of new or improved features, including:
- A new Smoothing attribute, which you can use to smooth out jitteriness.
- A new Filtering attribute to reduce the severity of sudden amplitude changes.
- A new Fourier Scaling option, which you can use to exaggerate amplitudes.
Node performance enhancements
The Explode, Flight, Random, Symmetry, and Transform nodes have been optimised for faster performance.
New Create MASH Network options
You can now assign default naming and distributions for the MASH network creation process, or you can force Maya prompt for a new name at the time of each network's creation. For more information, see Create MASH Network.
Max Triangle Count for Type / SVG
You can now set the maximum number of triangles contained in a Type or SVG object via the Max Triangle Count attribute. This allows you to adhere to poly count requirements and affords an extra layer of control in general. See Type Tool.
Maya to Adobe After Effects timeline compatibility
Partial timeline exports from Maya to After Effects are now supported via the MayatoAE command.