Autodesk Games Insight

Welcome to the first issue of Autodesk Games Insight, our monthly column on what’s new with Autodesk in the games industry. In this issue, I’ll cover Digital Entertainment Creation, the launch of our suites, and the new 2010 versions of our software.

Digital Entertainment Creation
This recession is putting the spotlight on the rising costs of entertainment production. At Autodesk, we believe that the key to improved efficiency and effectiveness in production is to empower artists with better and faster tools that communicate well together. That’s our vision for Digital Entertainment Creation.

The way games are created – from complex environments to believable characters – is improved by using new real-time, immersive, interactive technologies. We are focusing our tools on creative exploration and collaboration. Our products now feature higher-quality interactive rendering in viewports to make better creative judgments on assets. Our real-time animation tools can be integrated more tightly with games engines for a better understanding of how animation impacts game play.

Our solutions bring together game design, art creation and game programming. With faster turnarounds and more iterations, Digital Entertainment Creation helps you improve both quality and efficiency.

New Autodesk Entertainment Creation and Real-Time Animation Suites with 2010 software
Implementing this vision involves multiple Autodesk products, and we want to offer you more value. We’re introducing two new Suites, which offer more than 35 per cent savings. The Entertainment Creation Suite combines the choice of Autodesk Maya or Autodesk 3ds Max software, plus Autodesk Mudbox and Autodesk MotionBuilder software, in one package. The Real-Time Animation Suite includes Maya or 3ds Max, plus MotionBuilder. These suites include the new 2010 software versions, and are available for commercial and educational facilities.

New 2010 Versions and A UNIFIED Maya
We’ve just announced new versions of our software, including Maya 2010, Autodesk Softimage 2010 software, Mudbox 2010 and MotionBuilder 2010. I invite you to check out all the exciting new features on our website.

I’d like to highlight what we’ve done with Maya. In Maya 2010, we have combined Maya Unlimited and Maya Complete into one single product. We have also integrated compositing and match moving functionality, making Maya 2010 an ideal solution for the creation of games assets, and also for end-to-end movie-quality cinematic production.

What’s new from Autodesk M&E:
•Autodesk Entertainment
Creation Suite
• Autodesk Real-Time
Animation Suite
• Autodesk Maya 2010
• Autodesk Softimage 2010
• Autodesk Mudbox 2010
• Autodesk MotionBuilder 2010
• Autodesk 3ds Max 2010 Connection Extension

To learn more, visit www.autodesk.com/games
or area.autodesk.com.

Area v3
We love to hear from you and see your work. Over a quarter million artists have joined AREA, our digital entertainment and visualisation community, and it keeps on growing. We’ve just revamped the site and new content is posted regularly. Join us online for dialogue, downloads, learning and fun.

Enjoy the ride,

Marc Petit
Senior Vice President
Autodesk
Media & Entertainment
marc.petit@autodesk.com

*International savings may vary.