Autodesk announces updates to Flow at Autodesk University
The upcoming Maya feature Flow Animating in Context will let animators access editorial sequencing data from Flow Production Tracking directly in Maya.
Autodesk has announced new features in Flow, its ‘industry cloud’ for media and entertainment at Autodesk University 2024, its annual user conference.
Key changes include the new Flow Graph Engine API, which will enable studios and tools developers to run Maya Bifrost graphs in the cloud.
Maya itself will get Flow Animating in Context for Maya, a new feature connecting the 3D software to the Flow Production Tracking platform.
Autodesk’s new cloud platform for visual effects and animation production
Originally announced at Autodesk University in 2022, Flow is a cloud-based platform connecting “people, workflows, and data across the entire production lifecycle from earliest concept to final delivery”.
Its key objectives include fostering collaboration across teams: both between studios, and between the stages of production – pre-production, the live shoot, and post – with Flow intended to provide a “single source of truth for all assets, versions, and feedback”.
Although studios have been able to request early access to Flow since late last year, for many artists, the most visible sign of its presence has been the rebranding of Autodesk’s existing cloud-based services.
ShotGrid, the company’s production-tracking platform, became Flow Production Tracking earlier this year, while digital dailies platform Moxion became Flow Capture.
New Flow Graph Engine API enables new cloud features in Maya and 3ds Max
Autodesk’s latest announcements are a step towards integrating Flow with its content creation tools like Maya and 3ds Max.
The new Flow Graph Engine API is designed to make it possible to offload computationally intensive tasks – such as processing graphs from Maya’s Bifrost visual programming environment – to the cloud.
Autodesk is using the API to build new own cloud-enabled services, like the Flow Retopology service introduced in both Maya and 3ds Max this year.
The latest version of the Bifrost plugin, Bifrost for Maya 2.11, also added an experimental new Flow Wedging plugin, for running variants of a simulation in the cloud.
Also being used by third-party developers to create custom pipeline tools
As well as Autodesk itself, studios and third-party software developers will also be able to use the API to develop their own custom tools and services.
One early adopter is virtual production tools developer DigitalFish, which is using the Flow Graph Engine in its new XR workflow for pre-visualizing visual effects on set.
The crew scan the set to create a digital twin, with Flow Graph Engine used to complete the mesh. VFX artists can then add VFX that react to the digital twin, with the effects simulation also performed in the cloud.
Flow Animating in Context will connect Flow Production Tracking to Maya
Other upcoming connections between Flow and Autodesk’s desktop tools include Flow Animating in Context for Maya.
The feature, due in a future release of Maya, will enable animators to access editorial sequencing data from Flow Production Tracking directly inside Maya, helping them to understand the context in which an animation will be used.
Read more about the changes to Flow on Autodesk’s blog
Read more about Flow on Autodesk’s product webpage
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