Maya Personal Learning Edition is released!

[zero0w]

Maya Personal Learning Edition is finally out!

FYI, Maya is arguably the best 3D animation package in the industry. Many special effects in the Hollywood movies/animes are (partially) created with it - Star Wars Episode I, Lord of the Rings, FF The Spirits Within, Harry Potter...... any film you name it.

Now it's available free for download! (There are some limitations like watermark in the final render image. But hey, it's free )

Both Win2k/NT/XP and Mac OS X versions are available.
(However no Win9x/Me or Linux version)

You can go to the Aliaswavefront website to download it (registration required, by the way the download page is extremely overloaded for the moment, you might not be able to get in ).

[zero0w]

Humm...

It looks like after the free release of gMax and Aliaswavefront Maya Personal Learning Edition, Softimage decided that she can't afford to miss the boat to have a greater exposure in the 3D animation community and to students and beginners alike. You heard it right, Softimage will also have a free version! Maybe the Maya PLE is too successful, at least in terms of download request here.

Ok, the Softimage free version will be named as SOFTIMAGE|XSI Experience v.2.0. Unfortunately, you can't download it, but you can order it for free by registering at the Softimage website at this location: (The package even contains training videos.)

http://www.softimage.com/Products/xsi/v2/ExperienceCD/

Oh well, what can I say? It's a good time to learn 3d animation. Maybe the Best Animated Feature just added to the Oscar Academy Award this year is no coincidence .