Autodesk will showcase flow generative scheduling and other new AI capabilities in its tools Maya and Flame at Siggraph 2024. These solutions will be showcased as part of the Autodesk Vision Series educational sessions and demonstrated at the company’s booth #409 at Siggraph.
AI-powered Flow Generative Scheduling streamlines production planning workflows
Flow generative scheduling accelerates the creation of production schedules with constantly shifting project variables like deadlines, budgets, and team availability.
In a fraction of the time previously required, teams can now compare multiple schedule scenarios, evaluate tradeoffs, and create resource-optimised and balanced schedules for complex projects.
The feature enables teams to make critical decisions faster and gives creatives the freedom and insights to deliver their work on time and on budget. The feature can be accessed via flow production tracking (formerly ShotGrid) for a tightly integrated collaborative workflow.
Autodesk production management & platform vice president Mimi Hoang stated, “For years, Flow Production Tracking has been the de facto connective tissue for VFX workflows. We’re thrilled to bring Flow Generative Scheduling to help our customers plan and run projects more efficiently. Being able to evaluate different scenarios without impacting a live project, and then publishing a revised schedule directly into Flow Production Tracking is a game changer for creative teams.”
New features boost creative workflows for artists
New features coming to Maya and Flame come on the heels of Autodesk’s recent acquisition of Wonder Dynamics, makers of Wonder Studio, a solution which combines AI with established tools to help artists more easily animate, light, and compose 3D characters within live-action scenes.
Autodesk content creation, media & entertainment vice president Eric Bourque said, “Artist’s time is the most valuable resource for our customers. Being able to bring them AI tools to augment their creative process unlocks a host of new possibilities. They can spend more time iterating on their creative ideas, and less time on repetitive tasks.”
Maya’s new ML deformer enables artists to work with characters for animation, VFX, and games projects. The tool processes deformation systems and represents them with a fast, machine-learned approximation. For example, if you have a character with a complex deformation system that runs slowly, Maya can train to represent that deformation system using ML Deformer. Artists can then use this fast representation to work more interactively and switch back to the original for final polish or render.
Flame’s AI toolset continues to grow with ML Timewarp, a new mode that generates an intermediate frame between two frames in a shot for retiming of clips. Users will benefit not only from high-quality renders, but also from a fully integrated tool that maximises their workstation’s hardware, eliminating costly file transfer workflows across multiple tools. For the most demanding workloads, this new mode can also be queued to render with remote systems via Autodesk Burn.
In addition to these new features, the latest versions of Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max, with increased support for open standards and improved modelling, animation, simulation, look development, and enhanced rendering capabilities, will be demonstrated at the Autodesk booth.
Readers can get more insights about these updates in the Autodesk Vision Series at Siggraph featuring presentations from world-leading studios, including Rising Sun Pictures, Rodeo FX, Cinesite, Dexter Studios, Weta FX, Crafty Apes, and Fin Design + Effects, alongside Autodesk M&E subject matter experts.
The Vision Series runs 30 to 31 July, from 10 am to 4:45 pm MDT in room 401 at the Colorado Convention Center.
Siggraph 2024 is a three-day event featuring talks from prominent industry professionals and demonstrations on production and animation, arts, design, gaming and new technologies at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver from 28 July to 1 August 2024.