Autodesk Maya, which debuted 27 years ago in 1998, has since become one of the top 3D animation software in the world. The popularity is partly thanks to its user interface that can be customized, allowing artists to have a personalized workspace that fits their workflow.

With the arrival of Autodesk Maya 2024, you have more control over how you craft your animations. Even though this release doesn’t include any major new feature, there is a wide range of improvements that provides you with more tools and options, making it easier to create lifelike characters and models.

Features and Highlights

Home Screen

When you first launch Autodesk Maya 2024, a window called Home Screen appears, giving you the option to skip or follow an interactive tutorial, which will guide you through its user interface and show you how to move, rotate, and scale objects. The in-app tutorial is about 10 minutes long.

On the left side of the window, there is a panel containing several links and buttons, as well as an option to hide the Home Screen window on startup. If you have used Maya to work on a project, the recent files are shown on the window the next time you launch the program.

The What’s New section is where you can find some information about the latest updates in the 2024 release, but it requires an internet connection.

Weight Visualization

Gone are the days when artists had to guess how the mesh would perform due to the lack of an option to display the weight values directly in the viewport. In Autodesk Maya 2024, Weight Visualization is added to address this issue, which has been quite annoying for years.

The introduction of the new setting allows artists to get a real-time feedback that makes the rigging process easier and faster, especially when working on complex models.

Feature Preservation

Joining the new improvement set alongside the Weight Visualization is Feature Preservation. This feature gives more control over the final mesh by allowing users to choose which important aspects of a 3D model to preserve while performing some actions, ensuring that the integrity of the selected ones are maintained when making larger adjustments.

Simplified Workflow

Not only the Time Slider has become more user-friendly, the keyframe editing process has also been streamlined for simplicity. The addition of the new auto keyframing significantly contributes to the simplification, reducing the manual input users need to make when adjusting an object. For example, when you move an object, this feature automatically inserts keyframes at the correct positions, allowing users to continue working on the object without interruption.

Autodesk Maya 2024 Free Download for Windows

In addition to the improved interactive tutorial, simplified animation tools, faster rendering, and enhanced modelling features, the cross-platform 3D animation software also comes with an updated user interface that makes it easier to navigate.

Overall, despite the absence of any major new feature, this 2024 release is still an appealing upgrade, thanks to the notable improvements that allow users to do more in less time. You can click the link below to download Autodesk Maya 2024 for Windows: