Home » Blog » Maya 2012 Lands on my PC…
Maya 2012 Lands on my PC…
5 Comments 3D

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to find out that my copy of Maya 2012 was ready for me to download. This wasn`t through Autodesk though, rather my resseller Blue GFX who pointed me towards it, thanks guys!

So I eagerly waited the 20 minutes for the 1.6gb file to download and installation began.

 

I`d heard some good things about this version of Maya, like the Viewport 2.0 improvements and the Characterization Tools so was eager to give them a go.

On first opening 2012, it just looks like 2011 which I expected. Nothing obviously new. Its when you start to work things begin to appear, like the Split Polygon Tool for example. I use this regularly, and even have my own Polygon Tools window scripted to make modelling easier, but while looking around in the menus I found that this option had gone. You can still access it via the MEL command, but what seems to have replaced it is the Interactive Split Tool.

What this does is allows you to interactively draw where you need the geometry to be split, with the cursor snapping to edges and vertices automatically. A nice step up from the previous tool.

 

Interactive Split Tools Menu Item Interactive Split Tool in action

What I noticed next was a nice UI addition when performing an Extrude. usually you get the manipulator which you adjust to get the desired extrusion, now we have an added overlay giving us the option to adjust the Thickness, Offset and Divisions too. Admittedly, these were always there via the Channel Box, but its handy to have the options there for you. I presume this is also rolled out to other tools but I haven`t had chance to test them yet.

New Tool UI Enhancments

I have only had Maya 2012 for a day now and these small improvments are nice to see. What I want to do next is explore the Human IK, and Characterization Tools further to see if they can be viable rigging option for me on future projects. On initial inspection it seems a nice way to create a skeleton and rig a character, with some nice controls.

I will post my thoughts soon, but for now here is the official video for them from Autodesk -

 

Here is the link, just in case the embed code doesn`t work – Autodesk Human IK

Thanks!

 

 

  • http://www.badboycomics.com Dave

    Thx Tony! Have Maya 2012 now 2 days.. was looking for the split polygon tool too! Cool!

  • Nemeru

    Hey mate, just bumped into your post, searching for viable fixes for the interactive split tool… fer me, it never shows the line of the mouse untill i move the viewport… unacceptable.. do you possibly have any experience with this?

    also, i’ve been through the HIK, and though it seems nice and has some really cool features (like the bi-directional constraints for ik/fk externities), for me it still is useless. (try rotating a finger… both of the wrists rotate as well, haha… wtf, right? ^^)

    anyhow, nice post :)

  • Jacktyler

    Hi Ant, dont know about the full version but ive been using the trial of 2012 and its shockingly bugged, really really unstable to say the least, im talking crashing lots and then work not appearing properly when reloaded. Im sticking with my 2010 til they fix these issues and I have a pretty powerful pc too so know its not my pc. Let us know if you come across any of these issues as Ive heard a few other people I know have the same issues?

  • Pingback: Week 2 – Lab 1 (E-learning) « Introduction to 3D

  • Trihano Olvin

    Thanks about the information. I am New to Maya and I brought 2012 version. But I’m Mastered in 3ds Max 2012. So, just figure it out things .. I was just finding this cut tool in Maya. So, here I got all the information about it.

    Thank you

My 2009 Showreel (Update coming soon)

Recent Posts