Does Maya 2017 include these tools from 2016 Ext.2?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if Maya 2017 includes

• Shape Editor
• Pose Editor

I know the Maya 2016 Extension 2 does includes these, but what does that mean for 2017?

_____________________________________

Also what is meant by Maya 2017 customers will be able to use Arnold as the default out-of-the-box renderer for “foreground processing."

What does that mean in terms of what it can and cannot render?

[Anonymous]

Anybody with 2017 or know someone who has 2017?

[EthanShilling]

I can confirm that Maya 2017 includes both the Shape Editor and the Pose Editor.

As far as I'm aware, the only feature that has been removed from Maya 2017 is the Mental Ray Renderer. However, if you have a standalone Licence of Mental Ray, I believe you can still install Mental Ray and the Maya to Mental Ray plugin separately.

What they mean by foreground processing is that you can render using the Arnold Renderer (without watermarks) from within Maya - ie single frame renders. You can also render image sequences from within Maya using a newly added Render Sequence tool. This is different from Batch Rendering, in that it renders all the images to the single-frame render view, as if you had just sat there and clicked render yourself for every frame.

So as long as you remain within Maya, you can use the full version of the Arnold Renderer.

However, you cannot 'out-of-the-box' batch render using the Arnold Renderer (as you get a watermark). You need to purchase a separate, standalone Arnold Render licence to do this. This therefore means that you cannot render without Maya open, nor can you write a batch render script to initiate renders from multiple scenes in one go. All you can do now is open each scene yourself, and render one sequence at a time from within Maya.

Unless you previously used Mental Ray Satellite Rendering, or wrote batch render scripts, you wont really notice a change in your workflow.

Hope this clears things up!

[Anonymous]

@EthanShilling

So if i wanted to render with a render farm it wouldnt be possible?

But for instance if I wanted to just render a single posed image then thats the only way it would work?

[EthanShilling · Accepted solution]

Having never used a render-farm before (or understand how to set one up), I'm perhaps not the most qualified to answer your first question.

All I know is that the Arnold licence that comes with Maya is not the same as having a standalone Arnold licence, in that it does not permit rendering outside of the Maya interface. This is why batch rendering produces a watermark (because batch rendering happens outside of the Maya interface).

But... you can still produce single frame renders and fully animated sequences from within Maya (without watermarks).

The only real difference with batch rendering (either on the same machine or on a farm) is that you can still use Maya to do other things (because batch rendering happens in the background). However when you render a single frame or an animated sequence from within Maya, you can't do anything else until it has finished. I think that's why they're calling it foreground rendering.

So if you want to batch render with Arnold on the same machine that Maya is installed (so you can render in the background), then you will also need a standalone license. We never had this limitation when Mental Ray came with Maya 😞

Here's an FAQ answer I just found which confirms this:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Batch-Ren...

I think Autodesk are assuming that we either work in a company that has a large render-farm (already using separate licences), or we can pay to use a cloud rendering service (in which the cloud service provide the machines and the licences to use various renderers).

[DarrenP]

are sure you never you used a render farm with Maya?

that was a pretty good answer

wasn't Maya with mental ray the same way it did not come  batch render licenses for mental ray you had to buy the mental ray licenses to do a render farm with Maya

so yea from what i read the Arnold renderer in Maya is only for in Maya rendering and not a render farm

[Anonymous]

---

But... you can still produce single frame renders and fully animated sequences from within Maya (without watermarks).

The only real difference with batch rendering (either on the same machine or on a farm) is that you can still use Maya to do other things (because batch rendering happens in the background).

However when you render a single frame or an animated sequence from within Maya, you can't do anything else until it has finished. I think that's why they're calling it foreground rendering.

---

THIS!

I see what they mean by foreground now it makes so much sense!

They basically wasnt to set up a limiation since it comes with Maya so they decided to pull this move,

hehe