Tuesday, February 25th, 2014 Posted by Jim Thacker

Maya 2015 and 3ds Max 2015 sneak peeks leak online?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBwq5bCt3tc

Three videos that appear to show Autodesk’s upcoming 2015 releases of Maya and 3ds Max have been posted on YouTube.

The videos, recorded using the trial version of Maya 2015 and a pre-release build of 3ds Max 2015, do not appear on Autodesk’s own YouTube channel, and presumably aren’t official.

Bifrost fluid simulation in Maya
The Maya video runs through all of the menus in the software – now including one for Bifrost, Autodesk’s code name for the Naiad fluid simulation technology it acquired from Exotic Matter in 2012.

Although the Bifrost menu options are shown, there’s no demonstration of how they work, so for now, fxguide’s interview with the developers from last September remains a far better source of information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hg-OzvuCs8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrw_i2JffUA

The 3ds Max videos show the welcome screen, including links to quickstart training videos, and the iray renderer in use to generate render elements, with options including caustics and indirect lighting passes.

The functionality seems to be powered by iray’s new Light Path Expressions.

More official videos to come?
We’ve approached Autodesk for comment on whether the videos accurately reflect the upcoming releases. If the company follows its usual spring release schedule, expect more official sneak peeks over the coming weeks.

Updated: Autodesk has confirmed that the videos aren’t official, commenting that they “appear to be beta leaks, and as such, represent software that could still be subject to changes”. So there you go. Treat ’em with caution.