Autodesk has released pretty much everything in the 2011 suite this week.  We’ve already told you about Maya & 3dsMax, and now Mudbox, MotionBuilder, and Softimage have all seen updates.  From Autodesk’s website, for Mudbox2011:

Autodesk® Mudbox® 2011 digital sculpting and texture painting software includes the following new and enhanced features:

  • Deform and pose models quickly and easily to change their design, access occluded regions, present them for approval, or prepare them for map extraction.
  • Selectively edit and manipulate existing paint and photo-based layers with new image adjustment brushes.
  • Transfer models and scene information between Mudbox 2011 and Maya 2011with a single click.
  • Extract maps using a new Vector Displacement method and represent displacements that do not simply follow the normal: for example, forms with appendages, undercuts, folds and bulges.
  • Import and export multiple layers in PSD files to leverage the Adobe® PhotoShop® toolset on more demanding projects.

for Softimage 2011:

Autodesk® Softimage® 2011 3D modeling, animation, visual effects, rendering software includes the following new and enhanced features:

  • The Rendering Sandbox shader authoring environment automatically hosts external shaders and renderers without requiring custom UI or tools.
  • ICE kinematics enable you to drive the movement and behaviors of characters and scene elements.
  • Automatic Face Robot® Lip Synching functionality enables the instant generation of facial animation based on an audio file.
  • A selection of up to 100 new ICE compounds enables you to create a wide range of effects.
  • A selection of up to 100 new mental ray® shaders, including .mi and .mip production shaders, enables enhanced creativity.
  • Check out the Automatic Lip Syncing for Face Robot video on Mark Schoennagel‘s Planet Softimage blog.

and for MotionBuilder2011:

Autodesk® MotionBuilder® 2011 3D character animation software includes the following new and enhanced features:

  • NVIDIA® PhysX® plug-in enables better creation of rag-doll simulations.
  • Improved animation layers match the behavior of those in Maya 2009 and higher, and offer better interoperability.
  • Skinned characters play back faster by using the computing power of the GPU.
  • Updated native Autodesk® FBX® 2011 format support helps eliminate extra translation steps.

All three products are expected to be available in April 2010.

Tags