Maya is a high-end 3D computer graphics software package used in the film and TV industry, as well as for computer and video games.
Maya comes in two main versions, Maya Complete (confusingly, this is a cut-down version) and Maya Unlimited. Maya Unlimited used to be considered too expensive for home users but is now priced similar to other 3D programs. There is also Maya Personal Learning Edition (PLE) for non-commercial use, which is completely free, but each rendered picture or frame contains a large notice saying that it cannot be used for commercial things.
Maya is written by Alias wavefront, and is released for the Microsoft Windows, Linux, IRIX and Mac_OS_X operating systems. The latest version of Maya, version 5.0, was released in early 2003.
The most important feature of Maya is its openness to third-party software, which can strip Maya completely of its standard appearance and, using only the Maya kernel, can transform it into a highly customized, proprietary version of the software. Apart from its intrinsic power and flexibility, this feature in itself made Maya extremely appealing to large studios which tend to write quite a lot of proprietary code for their productions.
Apart from the openness to machine code, Maya also features a powerful, interpreted, cross-platform scripting language (Maya Embedded Language, a.k.a. MEL, very similar to PHP, conceptually resembling C). This allows users to tweak almost everything, starting from simple interface changes/helpers up to complex animation effects. This feature is intended for small-medium studios which don't have huge budgets but still need some level of customization.
Some of the features of Maya include:
- Simulation of particle effects (good for smoke, water droplets etc)
- A realistic fluid simulator (good for water, explosions, added in Maya 4.5)
- Inverse kinematics (to realistically simulate human limb movement, for example)
- Cloth simulation (simulate clothing and fabrics moving realistically)
- Fur (good for simulating fur and hair).
- Physical effects (simulate colliding objects, object deforming under pressure etc).
