Maya 2022 features

From fantastic creatures to sweeping landscapes and explosive battle sequences, the Academy Award-winning Maya® toolset is a top choice for creating believable characters and the worlds around them.

Dynamics and effects

Bifrost visual programming environment

Create physically accurate and incredibly detailed simulations in a single visual programming environment. (video: 4:49 min.)


Ready-to-use graphs

Create great-looking effects, such as snow and dust storms, right out of the box with prebuilt graphs.


Interactive hair grooming

Use powerful interactive groom tools to create realistic hair and fur for your characters.


Bifrost Fluids

Simulate and render photorealistic liquid effects.


Bifrost Ocean Simulation System

Create realistic ocean surfaces with waves, ripples, and wakes.


Physics and effects

Create highly realistic rigid, soft-body, cloth, and particle simulations.


Universal Scene Description (USD) workflows

NEW

Lighting speed

Load and edit massive data sets in a matter of seconds using USD in Maya.


NEW

Seamless import/export

Import USD data as native Maya data and export native Maya data as USD data.


NEW

Lightweight previews

See quick previews of USD scene structure using the new Hierarchy View Window.


NEW

In-memory USD stage support

Work directly with USD data in common Maya editors such as the Outliner and Attribute Editor.


NEW

USD in the viewport

See USD natively alongside Maya data in the viewport.


NEW

Open source and fully customizable

The Maya USD plug-in is available as an open-source project for studios to customize as needed.


3D animation

Fast playback

Review animations faster and produce fewer playblasts with cached playback in Viewport 2.0. (video: 12 sec.)


Time Editor

Make high-level animation edits with a nondestructive, clip-based, nonlinear editor.


Graph Editor

Create, view, and modify animation curves using a graphical representation of scene animation.


NEW

Ghosting Editor

Precisely visualize movement and the position of animated objects over time.


Deformation effects

Enhance character and object animation with powerful deformation effects.


Native Motion Library plug-in

Access high-quality motion capture data right in Maya.


Rigging

Character setup

Create sophisticated skeletons, IK handles, and deformers for characters that deliver lifelike performances.


Skinning

Seamlessly bind any modeled surface to a skeleton using skinning.


Retargeting

Easily transfer animation between skeletons that have the same or different skeletal structures.


3D modeling

Polygon modeling

Create 3D models using geometry based on vertices, edges, and faces.


NURBS modeling

Construct 3D models from geometric primitives and drawn curves.


UV editing and toolkit

View and edit the UV texture coordinates for polygon, NURBS, and subdivision surfaces in a 2D view.


Sculpting toolset

Sculpt and shape models more artistically and intuitively.


OpenSubdiv support

Accelerate performance with interactive workflows.


3D rendering and shading

Integrated Arnold renderer

Use Arnold Render View to view scene changes in real time, including lighting, materials, and cameras.


GPU and CPU rendering

Use Arnold for production rendering on both the CPU and GPU.


Standard Surface Shader

Model materials such as car paint, frosted glass, and plastic, and preview renders in the viewport.


Look development with Hypershade

Build shading networks by creating and connecting rendering nodes, such as textures, materials, and lights.


Color management

See accurate previews of final colors in the viewport and Render View.


Motion graphics

MASH procedural effects

Use MASH to create versatile motion design animations with procedural node networks.


3D Type

Create branding, flying logos, title sequences, and other projects that require text.


Adobe Live link

View a scene in both Maya and Adobe After Effects at the same time.


Pipeline integration

NEW

Python 3

Create Maya scripts and write plug-ins using Python 3.


Customization

Customize how Maya looks and works to suit your pipeline.


Scene Assembly tools

Create large, complex worlds more easily and manage production assets as discrete elements.