LAS VEGAS — At NAB 2015, Autodesk announced that it will begin shipping the “2016” versions of Flame, Maya and 3DS Max on April 16th. The company’s 2015 NAB theme is “Artists Connected,” with a focus on how people will be making movies in the future, thanks in part to IT trends taking place that are enabling connection and collaboration among content creators.
Flame 2016’s big news is the addition of Lightbox, a new tool that allows users to color grade using a light in 3D environment. The light can cast color corrections. Lightbox comes with presets, allowing Flame users to perform grading directly within a 3D compositing environment. Flame also features improved Shotgun integration, and new features for the handling of proxy files ranging from low res to Ultra HD. A new export mode also eliminates the need to pre render media.
Maya 2016 offers new performance gains thanks to parallel rig evaluation, which understand where bottlenecks are taking place and helps to relieve them, often providing 2x to 5x increases in performance. Maya’s UI has been reorganized and modernized, and is now scalable for use on different displays, including tablets. Maya’s look development toolkit has also been improved. And its Bitfrost tool for creating procedureal liquids has been enhanced for the creation of foam, froth and bubbles. Camera adaptivity also allows for focusing performance on heavy areas of simulation.
3DS Max 2016 has been improved for better collaborative workflow and ease of use. A new templating system now allows users to create set ups quickly.
At NAB, Autodesk is also introducing Shotgun RV 6, which includes new project templates for film, commercials, games, and TV right out of the box.