Autodesk has unveiled a new 3D modeling and animation program specifically aimed at game developers called Maya LT 2014. The program, drawn from the full 3D Maya suite, tailors the company’s abilities in rendering and animation to the needs of mobile and indie game developers, including out-of-the-box support for the Unity 3D and Unreal engines for better integration into development workflows.
The program can create 3D mobile, PC and web-based game assets such as characters, environments and props at a much lower price than the full Maya suite, allowing small game teams the ability to extend their artistic abilities and take on bigger challenges without large upfront costs.
Maya LT features an all-new, easy-to-navigate user interface, and can import some 3D assets from the full Maya program. It also imports many standard 3D and graphics formats and exports in FBX for compatibility with the two supported game engines. The FBX files can support up to 25,000 polygons per object, and the program includes a skeleton generator and inverse kinematics using HumanIK. It also handles 3D assets of any size, features high-quality viewport previews, and lighting and texture baking into texture and vertex maps.
The program is available starting today for Mac and Windows for $795 for a perpetual license, with term licenses soon to be available on a monthly, quarterly or annual rental plan. Prices for rentals start at $50, $125 and $400 respectively.
