Autodesk released Maya 2017 by removing Mental Ray as the render engine and inserting Arnold Render (recently purchased from Solid Angle) directly as Maya’s internal render engine … But there is a caveat though.
Maya 2017 Arnold in Maya
Currently underway the Siggraph where the news of the sector are shown, Autodesk announced Maya 2017, unveiling the new features of the most loved 3d software in the world.
Maya 2017 appears to be focusing on major workflow updates, bringing in new publishers. This release includes important workflow updates …
One of the biggest changes with the latest release is that Mental Ray is no longer included in Maya.
If you want to use Mental Ray, you need to download the package from nvidia.
In the new version, Maya puts Arnold Render as the primary render engine, although there is a caveat.
Autodesk releases Maya 2017 with Arnold render …
out of Mental Ray
Arnold is a local version of Arnold in Maya. It only works interactively while working in Maya. It is possible to render a single frame, or a sequence of frames interactively, while batch rendering will give you a watermark. If you want to batch render, you need to purchase Arnold Batch Render Nodes, from Solid Angle.
Hopefully this step will be made easier in later releases showing Arnold as Maya’s main render engine.
Aside from this Maya 2017 offers some great workflow improvements.
Maya 2017 Overview
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Maya 2017 Bifrost Updates
Maya 2017 for Motion Graphics
Autodesk another aspect on which it is pushing a lot are the new tools for motion graphics, in this video we see some of the tools at work that we find within Maya 2017.
Not particularly exciting video, especially when compared to the industry-leading Cinema 4D work regarding Motion Graphic.
XGen Interactive Grooming – Overview
Render Setup Introduction
Maya 2017 Essential Training | Use the Light Editor
Maya 2017 malleable workspace
Maya 2017 brings a new working ideology that is supposed to replace panel layouts.
You can open, close, move, or dock panels.
Workspaces offer way more flexibility than panel layouts, and are stored as files in the user directory rather than on a scene-by-scene basis.
New Content Browser
There is now a new Content Browser in Maya. Very convenient, one-stop where you can find scenes, models, animations and examples.
With the new content browser, you can easily browse for Maya project files. This includes local and network directories, and libraries.
New Time Editor
You probably remember the Trax editor in Maya. It was an amazing concept that pushed the premise of non-linear animation editing as if you were doing video editing. Now Maya 2017 has a new time editor that should take over the Trax.
Recently revamped Graph Editor
The graphic editor in Maya is updated, it is now much more modern, and the most intuitive way for new users, simplifying the curve animation process. Of course, if you prefer, you can bring back the old model or what is called the “classic” graphic editor.
Many improvements made in this version by Autodesk, for more information go to Maya 2017 Help Docs.