Autodesk’s Maya software is gaining ground in the video games industry as developers increasingly use the software for the creation 3D gaming worlds
nDreams has created 3D spaces for PlayStation home, the social gaming network for the PS3
Following the recent unveiling of Project Skyline and specifically Autodesk’s vision of a Maya-centric game authoring environment in the last few months, case studies from developers using the application to develop games are beginning to trickle through.
nDreams, a relatively new games developer and publisher is already using Maya to create some fantastical 3D gaming worlds.
Having set up in 2007, nDreams has taken a varied approach, including creating open 3D worlds for big brands that want to reach their target demographics.
Streamline
The developer has always used Maya to create its visuals, putting it down to the quality of images produced. “We need to produce these high quality graphics at the lowest possible cost, which means our pipeline has to be streamlined and efficient as possible,” says nDreams CEO, Patrick O’Luanaigh.
He cites its integration with the PlayStation 3 and the Unity engine as two key factors in this streamlined pipeline: “Maya works together with these very well with no need to convert or re-create data,” explains O’Luanaigh.
Lewis Hamilton: Secret Life
The most recent example of nDreams’ work using Maya is last year’s game Lewis Hamilton: Secret Life.
Made for Reebok, it saw the racing driver play a secret agent over various platforms in both the real world and online.
nDreams used Maya to create 3D levels, characters, and animations. “We had a very specific set of requirements and we had to be very tight in the number of polygons used to piece the levels together,” says O’Luanaigh.
“Because we were using Maya, we could export into Unity which is used as middleware very easily.”
PlayStation Home
nDreams has also used Maya for creating a virtual space inside PlayStation Home, the virtual 3D social gaming network for the PS3.
The space, called Aurora features floating islands and vistas. “Maya helps us create spectacular content as well as a seamless pipeline, with none of the old problems of migrating content and having to convert the data,” explains O’Luanaigh.
Despite having only been producing content since 2007, nDreams has picked up plenty of work, largely down to its creative and artistic approach to content, which, O’Luanaigh says, is largely down to its use of Maya.
Posted on Thursday, June 9th, 2011 at 3:12 pm under Features, Technology. You can subscribe to comments. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
Tags: Autodesk, Games, Maya, Project Skyline, unity
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