What's New Maya 2023.1 Update

Welcome to Maya 2023! Read on to learn about the new features and updated workflows you'll find in this release. For technical details including What's Fixed, see the Maya 2023 Release Notes.

Maya 2023 focuses on improved usability for both seasoned Maya artists and new users alike. Experience the completely revamped Booleans Tool, the new Blue Pencil Tool, or try some of the other improvements detailed in the links below. You'll also notice an improved user experience with the new Application Home hub, gamiefied tutorials, and a new Search feature that lets you navigate the user interface more efficiently.

For more on the evolution of Maya over the years, check out the Maya timeline on Autodesk AREA.

What's new in Maya 2023.1

Boolean Updates

New options in the Boolean stack improve usability and performance.

New HumanIK Character template

A comprehensive Character Template adds extra bones and joints.

Updated USD plug-in for Maya

Updated Universal Scene Description (USD) support in Maya lets artists work seamlessly with USD in conjunction with Maya workflows.

What's new in Maya 2023

Updated USD plug-in for Maya

Updated Universal Scene Description (USD) support in Maya lets artists work seamlessly with USD in conjunction with Maya workflows.

Bifrost 2.4.0.0

Bifrost 2.4.0.0 introduces Bifrost-USD, combining the power of USD to assemble, organize, and edit assets non-destructively with the flexibility and friendliness of the Bifrost graph.

Introducing Blue Pencil

Brand new Blue Pencil tools let you create 2D drawings, text, and shapes in the viewport, perfect for animation blocking or annotating your scene file with notes and suggestions.

Improved Boolean Operations

Create and edit boolean operations in fewer clicks using the new Boolean node.

Improved User Experience

Maya has undergone a number of improvements for first-time and returning users alike. These include a new Application Home hub, Interactive Tutorials, Search, and Viewcube.

Mesh Wireframe Opacity

Alpha channels are now available in the Color Chooser, letting you set the opacity of the wireframe on objects.

What's New in Animation Performance

Maya 2023 includes several animation performance improvements to help speed up your work, including updates to Cached Playback, Evaluation Toolkit, and Bake Simulation options.

Retopology tools for Maya

Updates to retopology tools in Maya enable artists to achieve enhanced results for their meshes.

Deformer updates

New Retargeting and Mirror capabilities, Solidify scaling options, and extra Deformer falloffs have been added to the Maya deformation arsenal.

Additional Component Tag options

New functionality has been added for Component Tags to give you more control over tag membership.

What's New in Modeling Performance

Additional performance improvements and tool updates speed up common modeling workflows and produce more predictable results.

New Sweep Mesh option

A new option has been added to the Sweep Mesh tool to let you choose whether to use single creator node or multiple creator nodes per curve.

Arnold for Maya 5.1.0 plug-in

Maya 2023 provides MtoA 5.1.0 which includes new features, performance improvements, and bug fixes.

Create VR for Maya

Create VR for Maya is an immersive conceptual design tool that empowers artists and designers to start their creative process directly in 3D.

Operating System, Python, and PyMEL Updates

Maya 2023 has added support for Rocky Linux, and has a new minimum required version of macOS. Maya 2023 now uses Python 3 exclusively.

What's New in the Maya 2023 devkit

The Maya 2023 devkit includes a new minimum CMake version, new Blue Pencil APIs and commands, and several other changes.