"Maya is the foundation of our 3D pipeline… Almost all of our polygonal modeling happens in Maya, as does all of the ape topology."
MAYAFlorian: Maya is the foundation of our 3D pipeline. We’re actively testing Maya 2017 on other projects, but we had already locked into the 2016 version for this latest Apes feature – and that familiarity was helpful to us. Almost all of our polygonal modeling happens in Maya, as does all of the ape topology.
For hair and grooming, we use our proprietary Wig software, running in Maya. The flexibility Maya offers in that regard is wonderful, since we can just design Maya plugins (like Wig, Lumberjack, and Totara) to meet our needs, and that’s exactly how we handled tricky stuff like the fur, or the trees and vines that form the backdrop of so much of the movie. We rely a lot on custom Python and open Maya tools, and that versatility is huge for us.
Anders: We also made good use of the greater modeling toolkit integration. In the past, for things like topology, we’d rely on external applications, and now we get most of that done right in Maya. The same goes for low-resolution sculpts, thanks to the new sculpting tools in the 2016 version. We also made good use of the new unfold UV tool and the brush-based options in the UV editor.
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