Maya 2022.1 released

Many of the new features included in Maya 2022.1 aim to reduce the learning curve for new users. Changes include two new tutorials for beginners: “Interactive Basics” and “Overview”, as well as a new “Home App” home screen that provides access to additional tutorials and information about new features.

The character kit for Mayabot, a virtual tutorial host for the basics of interactivity, comes free with Maya.
Other features focus on using Maya to create your own interactive tutorials and presentations.

The new Stage node allows Python scripts to be run consistently to create tours, while a new option for displaying 2D overlays on top of the Maya UI can be used to create annotations.
The update also introduces a global search engine that allows you to search for menus, tools, commands and scene objects by typing part of their names into a text box.

Users can also search for similar keywords such as “hair” instead of “XGen” and filter results using tags.
Noted is the return of Viewcube, the Maya Viewport navigation widget, which was removed in Maya 2018, but was previously compatible with Maya Viewport 2.0 in several releases.
Sweep Mesh, used to create 3D geometry by dragging a profile along a guiding curve, has been updated and has the ability to adjust parameters for each curve as well as globally.

Component tags used to create random geometry samples, to which deformers are applied as part of the new topology-independent rigging workflows, have gained more control over tag membership.
The deformers themselves have gained two new Faloff modes. The subset mode uses component tags to deform only part of the mesh. Faloff uses custom 3D objects to control fading.

There are also a number of minor changes to the user interface and workflow. The Maya USD plugin has been updated to support EXR textures and USDZ file imports. Maya now runs in Python 3 mode by default – support for the new programming language was introduced in Maya 2022, although Python 2 mode is still available.

Maya 2022.1 is available for Winodws 10, RHEL/ CentOS 7.6 – 7.9 or 8.2 Linux and macOS 10.13 and above. The software is available for rent only. Subscription costs $215 per month or $1,700 per year.
In many countries, artists earning less than $100,000 a year or working on projects costing less than $100,000 a year are eligible for the Maya Indie subscription, now priced at $280 a year.