Autodesk announces AI workflow updates across Maya, 3ds Max, Flow Studio, and Arnold, introducing MotionMaker for rapid horse animation, Wonder 3D for text-to-3D generation, AI-assisted texturing, and Autodesk Assistant for in-software guidance.

MotionMaker now includes a ready-made 3D horse and an AI model trained on motion-capture data to enable quick animation creation in layout and previs tasks.

Maya 2027 and Maya Creative 2027 arrive with major updates across core toolsets for modeling, look development, rigging, animation, simulation, and rendering.

The tools are framed as accelerators that remove routine bottlenecks while keeping artists in control of the final output.

A new Smart Bevel system improves bevel generation by following mesh shape and performs better on uneven topology and boolean-created meshes.

New USD and asset tooling enhancements include Component Creator for guided USD authoring, Variant Manager for asset variations, and Asset Resolver in Maya and 3ds Max to improve asset paths and dependencies visibility.

Pricing notes indicate Maya 2027 is rental-only, with Indie and Creative options available at different price points.

Sequencer workflow enhancements include easier trimming and time-scaling, plus a Playblast-focused menu and improved shot organization with color-coding, labeling, and custom thumbnails.

Autodesk emphasizes practical utility over hype, positioning these tools as productivity accelerators that fill gaps and reduce friction without replacing human artistry.

Bifrost 3.0 adds small-scale liquid simulation improvements, surface tension controls, use of ocean surfaces as guides, new rigid-body constraints, an eyelid deformation module, and asynchronous evaluation for a responsive editor.

Procedural simulation enhancements include a fully procedural destruction workflow in Bifrost Rigid Body Dynamics for Maya and Flow Wedging to generate multiple simulation variants in parallel via the cloud.

LookdevX 2.0 updates enable viewing all UV-input nodes in the UV Editor, support relative MaterialX paths, and improve Archive Scene handling for MaterialX documents.