We upgraded the Maya-based animation pathway of our API from Maya 2020 to Maya 2024. This means faster turnaround times for our web service, which provides fully automated generation of animations. In fact, we're seeing turnaround time for several animations reduced from 30 to less than 20 seconds. For example, an API request for one of our standard 800x800 animations, 7 seconds in length, of our 'Cube' animation:
a model of a QR code is created,
an animation is applied,
240 frames are rendered,
240 frames are encoded into 1 mp4 file,
and file is streamed to a remote location
in 18 seconds or less. We've also noticed substantial improvements in consistency of animation dependency graph evaluation in Maya 2024 as compared to Maya 2020, allowing us to remove a fair amount of workaround code, especially for animations involving animated textures or motion blur.
It's great to see these industry tools become more and more stable and reliable with parallel evaluation of GPU based renderings.
We're also researching and exploring newer GPU based rendering solutions. Some of our animations require reflections, and this typically requires a software render solution, which is much slower. But the market for GPU rendering is growing, and newer GPU solutions like Redshift, Nvidia Iray, and Unreal Engine support raytracing - and therefore reflections - even in GPU rendering. What does this mean for you? Well, would you like to be the coolest presenter, and have a customized animated QR code - with your supplied image integrated into it - made for you just a few minutes before your talk? Not a problem. Visit our Animation Library and you'll have an mp4 file of your awesome animated QR code in just a few minutes.