Sculpting Toolset
Artists can now shape models more artistically and intuitively using a new set of fully-featured sculpting tools. Simply select a tool from the new
Sculpting shelf, adjust the
sculpting tool settings, and move your cursor across a model to make a stroke.
Enjoy greater productivity by sculpting relative to an animated shot camera or on an animated character in the context of production camera shaders and lighting. Using the sculpting tools in conjunction with other tools and options, like OpenSubdiv and non-destructive deformers like shrinkwrap, makes your sculpting session more efficient. For a more complete shape authoring experience, use the sculpting tools with blend shapes. Updates to the
Blend Shape Editor make creating and editing blend shape targets easier. Click new buttons in the editor and on the
Sculpting shelf to create, edit, and remove blend shape targets without adding new meshes to the scene.
Modeling Toolkit integration
The
Modeling Toolkit integration is now complete. The streamlined
Modeling Toolkit no longer contains redundancies like duplicate tools and options, and the settings that remain in the panel are fully integrated into
Maya. In addition to removing the power button, the following updates make the toolkit look and feel like a native part of the application:
- Streamlined Tools: The same command is now called when you select
Bridge,
Bevel or
Extrude from the
Edit Mesh menu, the
Modeling Toolkit, or the polygon marking menu.
- Integrated Transform Constraints: The
Move,
Rotate, and
Scale tools now include
Transform Constraint options. See
Slide polygon edges and
Move polygon components along a surface.
- Integrated Selection constraints: The
Angle,
Border, and
Shell constraints can now be used without activating the
Modeling Toolkit. These constraints can also be selected from the
Propagation drop-down menu in the
Polygon Selection Constraint window (Select > Use Constraints). New
Edge Loop and
Edge Ring propagation options have also been added, letting you quickly preview and select loops and rings on your mesh. See
Expand a selection.
- Integrated Soft Selection and Symmetry: The
Soft Selection controls in the
Modeling Toolkit are now the same as the native
Soft Selection and
Symmetry controls. Meshes no longer need to be completely symmetrical to activate topological symmetry. When the new
Allow Partial Symmetry option is on (default), you can edit parts of a mesh that are symmetrical, even if the mesh is not symmetrical overall. See
Edit a mesh with partial topological symmetry.
- Integrated Modeling Toolkit preferences:
Handle Selection and
Manipulator Visibility options have been added to the
Manipulators preferences and the
Quad Draw Tool hotkey mappings are now available in the
Modeling preferences.
- Target Weld Tool integration: The
Merge Edge Tool and
Merge Vertex Tool have been removed, and the options for these tools have been added to the improved
Target Weld Tool, making it the new default method for merging components. See
Merge polygon components.
- Object and component selection: You can now select objects (F8), and UVs (F12) using the
Modeling Toolkit. See
Modeling Toolkit selection modes
- Reactivate the last used tool: You can now use the Y hotkey to reactivate the
Multi-Cut Tool,
Quad Draw Tool,
Connect Tool, and
Target Weld Tool after using them or switching to another tool.
- Hotkeys: Expand the new
Keyboard/Mouse Shortcuts section in the
Quad Draw Options,
Connect Options,
Multi-Cut Options, and
Target Weld Options to see a list of hotkeys for each tool.
UV brushes in the UV Editor
Manipulating UVs in the
UV Editor is now easier with new brush-based tools. Quickly activate the
Unfold UV Tool (),
Optimize UV Tool (),
Cut UV Tool (),
Sew UV Tool ()
Grab UV Tool (),
Pin UV Tool (),
Pinch UV Tool (), and
Smear UV Tool () from the
UV Editor toolbar and drag across a UV shell to unwrap, untangle, split, weld, or move UVs in the
UV Editor.
You can also move UVs in the viewport using the 3D Grab Tool (UV > 3D UV Grab Tool).
UV Editor updates
- New support for preselection highlighting,
edge rings and
component loops makes selecting components in the
UV Editor faster and more efficient.
- You can now
capture a snapshot or image sequence in the UV Editor and save the images to disk using MEL commands.
- New support for the 2d Texture Placement node lets you modify the place2dTexture attributes and visualize its changes in the
UV Editor and in Viewport 2.0.
- The
UV Editor toolbar has new controls for temporarily adjusting the
Exposure and
Gamma. In addition, when color management is enabled, you can deactivate or temporarily change the view transform for diagnostic purposes. The controls work in the same way as in
Viewport 2.0 and the
Render View.
Contour Stretch UV Mapping
The new contour stretch UV mapping lets you project a texture onto a selection of an object's polygons. Instead of projecting according to a specific form, contour stretch mapping analyzes a four-cornered selection to determine how best to stretch the polygons' UV coordinates. Contour stretch mappings are useful for applying textures to tracks and roads on irregular, terrain-like meshes and for fitting regular-shaped textures onto curved meshes.
In-View Editor
The new
In-View Editor displays a customizable subset of a node's attributes. An editor appears after you perform a number of different modeling operations or create a polygon primitive, letting you adjust attributes directly in your scene instead of opening the
Channel Box or
Attribute Editor. After creating a polygon primitive, you must activate the Show Manipulator Tool (Hotkey: T) before the In-View Editor appears
Improved pivot editing workflow
Complicated pivot editing is simplified with an improved pivot editing mode. The new workflow integrates many features from the
Modeling Toolkit's custom pivot workflow, and boasts new functionality, like support for object pivots. You can now easily align one object to another, without using another tool. See
Align objects,
Activate custom pivot editing mode (Hotkey: Insert or D) to use new modifier keys (Ctrl, Shift, Ctrl + Shift) that let you adjust pivot orientation, position, and alignment. When you hold a modifier key, text appears on your cursor, indicating the pivot adjustment associated with that key.
Transform tool settings improvements
-
The
Move,
Rotate, and
Scale tool settings have been reorganized and many options have been renamed to improve usability. For example,
Center as virtual trackball is now called
Free Rotate. For more information on renamed options, see
Move Tool,
Rotate Tool, and
Scale Tool.
- The
Axis Orientation options and the
Set to Component/Point/Edge/Face options have been consolidated into pop-up menus. Click
to expand the menus. See
Set a custom axis orientation.
- Custom axis fields are now measured in degrees instead of radians.
OpenSubdiv improvements
- The new
OpenSubdiv Catmull-Clark Adaptive subdivision method uses the GPU to generate a high resolution mesh that can be rendered at a high frame rate, without affecting your scene's performance. Adaptive subdivision supports high levels of tessellation and adjusts tessellation based on camera position, providing you with a smooth mesh whether your model is close to the camera or far away.
OpenSubdiv Catmulll-Clark Adaptive is only supported on Windows and Linux when using OpenGL 4 and DirectX11 compatible graphics cards.
- Artists can now enjoy improved performance when working with both OpenSubdiv methods because of the new multi-threaded evaluation core.
- Turn on the new
UV Tiles option in the
OpenSubdiv Controls to load and display tiled textures in your scene.
Bevel improvements
The new bevel algorithm works to maintain parallel edges during bevel operations, giving you better results. Additionally, you can now bevel () only the perimeter edges of your face selection, instead of all the associated edges. See
Bevel polygon edges and faces.
Interactive creation
Interactive creation for polygon and NURBS primitives is now off by default.
Manipulator updates
- The center of the
Rotate Tool manipulator now highlights when you rotate your object or component selection freely, making it easier to see when
Free Rotate is turned on.
- + or - signs now appear on the cursor while holding modifier keys to indicate whether components are added or removed from the selection.
- Manipulator handles now turn orange instead of yellow when your cursor moves over them, making it easier to determine when the cursor is over an active handle.
- A single dot has been added to the center of the
Move Tool manipulator to assist with precise transformations.
- A new
Pivot Manipulator section has been added to the
Manipulator preferences with options to toggle the visibility and adjust the size of the orientation handles on the pivot manipulator.
Move components along their normals
New hotkeys let you pull components in (Ctrl +
-drag left) and push components out (Ctrl +
-drag right) along their normals using the
Move tool.
Selection improvements
- Press Ctrl + 1 to enter
Isolate Select mode () and only show the selected objects or components in your scene. Any new object you create in this mode now auto-loads by default.
- Press Alt + D or select
Deselect All () to cancel your selection and unhighlight the selected objects in one operation.
- The new
Highlight Nearest Component option in the
Modeling Toolkit and the
Select Tool settings lets you toggle the ability to highlight components as your cursor moves close to them.
Hard Edge display mode
Display only the hard edges on your mesh when you turn on the new
Hard Edges () option. While soft edges can still be highlighted and selected in this mode, they don't appear on your mesh.
Automatically set the tumble pivot
Turn on the new
Automatically set tumble pivot option (View > Camera Tools > Tumble Tool >
) to set the tumble pivot to your work area, reducing the time you spend adjusting the camera during your sculpting and modeling workflows. See
Tumble Tool options.
Updated modeling menus and shelves
- The
Surfaces and
Polygons menu sets have been combined into a single
Modeling menu set.
The
XGen and
Paint Effects menus have been combined into a single
Generate menu that is now included in the
Modeling menu set.
- The
Surfaces and
Edit NURBS menus have been combined into a single
Surfaces menu.
- The
Create UV and
Edit UV menus have been combined into a single
UV menu.
- The
Normals and
Color menus have been combined into a single
Mesh Display menu.
- The
Edit Curves menu has been renamed to
Curves.
- The menu items in the
Mesh Tools menu can now be added to the shelves.
- The
Curves and
Surfaces shelves have been combined into a single
Curves/Surfaces shelf.
A divider separates the
Curves and the
Surfaces options.
- The
Polygons shelf now includes dividers that separate the primitive creation options, modeling operations, and UV operations.
The new
Bevel button on the
Polygons shelf lets you bevel any component type and replaces the
Chamfer Vertices button.