Autodesk Maya

Overview

Autodesk Maya is amongst the forefront of the 3D modelling industry, although it is developed for commercial use. Its primary purpose up until now has been for animations and special effects for companies like Pixar, but a plethora of plugins allow it to be integrated into VR with just a few steps. Some of these include Domemaster3D and the creatively-named VR-Plugin. From here, veteran modellers are only a short hop away from converting their worlds to VR.

Furthered by Giuse - VR viewing in Maya is free with VR-Plugin, but the actual editing requires a plugin behind a paywall. Additionally, the product explanation videos don't really offer insight on how modeling in VR with Maya is an upgrade to experience. You lose the functionality and shortcuts of the keyboard for viewing a 3d Model in VR, when the same can be accomplished with Unity or Paraview.

Viewing Models in VR

There is also the ability to view the models created in Maya by directly exporting as a FBX object, experimenting with small scale tutorial models have yielded one-to-one viewing in Unity. The menu sequence used was File->Export-> Export As .FBX, Then in Unity, import 3d model.

Metrics

Accessibility: The estimated time for someone to a Hello World.

  • Beginner: No graphics experience | 30 mins

  • Advanced: Graphics experience | 10 minutes

Power: The engine's power - i.e. how much one can do with this

  • Extremely powerful: Linear to exponential levels to difficulty, but allows for any imagining as the software is industry standard for animation.

Usage: Evaluation of software's use for the following purposes

  • Art, Design, Animation, Gaming, Some Research

Documentation