Autodesk unveils new AI tools coming to Maya
Autodesk has announced new AI-powered tools coming to Maya, its 3D modeling and animation software for visual effects, games and motion graphics.
Autodesk Assistant is an agentic AI assistant for automating tasks based on natural-language commands, which will also be rolled out in other Autodesk software like 3ds Max.
FaceAnimator is an automatic facial animation toolset that uses previously animated sequences of a project to generate facial and lip-sync animation from an audio file
Both were announced at the company’s AU 2025 (Autodesk University 2025) conference.
Autodesk Assistant: control Maya using natural-language commands
The first upcoming AI tool is Autodesk Assistant, a new “agentic AI partner” intended to make it possible to control Autodesk software by entering natural-language commands.
Autodesk first floated the idea of using natural language to control Maya in 2023 in Maya Assist, an experimental tool for interacting with scene data using Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service.
Autodesk Assistant seems to be along similar lines, but it’s a broader initiative, intended to roll out across the majority of Autodesk’s software.
The feature is already available in Autodesk design tools like AutoCAD and Revit, where it acts as a natural-language documentation search and support tool: an internal chatbot, essentially.
The new version of Autodesk Assistant, due in beta in Revit later this year, will expand its capabilities to encompass a much broader range of tasks.
For industrial designers, one use case cited by Autodesk in its press conference ahead of AU 2025, is assigning user permissions for a collaborative project using natural language.
For entertainment professionals, the example was using natural language to animate the change of scene lighting in a day-to-night animation: presumably an architectural visualization.
The new Autodesk Assistant is due to roll out in the majority of Autodesk software, including its Media & Entertainment products, like Maya and 3ds Max.
Autodesk VP Maurice Patel told CG Channel that Autodesk Assistant was less certain to be integrated into less-supported tools like Mudbox, but that it was too early to give details.
FaceAnimator: train AI models on your own production data to automate lip sync
However, for Maya users, the more interesting tool is likely to be the one we don’t currently have a video for: FaceAnimator.
Autodesk describes it as an “AI-powered tool [that] uses previously animated sequences of a project to generate facial and lip-sync animation from an audio file”.
The company began introducing AI animation tools into Maya earlier this year with the release of MotionMaker, the new generative AI system for synthesizing motion cycles for biped and quadruped characters.
However, unlike MotionMaker – which provides pre-trained AI models for previs and simple final-quality animations – FaceAnimator can be trained locally, “learn[ing] from any production rig” and “creating high-quality animations that mimic the style of your project”.
The toolset is being announced in beta at AU 2025, but Patel described it as still “very early”.
We’ve contacted Autodesk to ask if a public demo is available, and will update if we hear back.
Price, system requirements and release dates
FaceAnimator is currently in beta. The updated Autodesk Assistant is due in beta later this year. Autodesk told CG Channel that it was too early to give a timescale for a public release.
In the past, it has taken between six months and three years for new technologies announced at Autodesk University to reach production builds of Autodesk’s software.
You can find pricing and system requirements for Maya itself in this story on Maya 2026.2, the current release.
Read Autodesk’s announcement of new AI features in its Media & Entertainment software
(Includes changes that have already been made, like the new pricing for Flow Studio)
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