Autodesk has released Mudbox 2018.2, the latest update to the digital sculpting software, adding a long-awaited dynamic tessellation system, new brushes for refining mesh density, and support for Hi-DPI monitors. The release is the first in several years to introduce significant new functionality to Mudbox, arguably adding more major new features than the entire Mudbox 2016 and Mudbox 2017. Maya 2013, Maya 2014, Maya 2015, Maya 2016, Maya 2017, Maya 2018, Maya 2019, & Maya 2020.
Autodesk has released Maya 2018.2, a minor update to the 3D modelling and animation software, adding new render attributes for Bifröst simulations and updating FBX export.
(Full disclosure: it actually came out before Christmas, but we didn’t manage to cover it at the time.)
New render options provide finer control over Bifröst output
Bifröst, Maya’s fluid simulation toolset, gets a number of new render attributes in Maya 2018.2.
Simulations can now be rendered as surfaces, points or volumes, with the option to choose different render types for the liquid surface, foam and spray.
Each render type gets its own individual controls, including new smoothing options for surfaces.
It is also now possible to render only those portions of a sim that fall inside the world-space bounding box of clipping mesh; and to blend a simulated fluid surface back into a planar mesh for ocean simulations.
Data channels like velocity, vorticity and density can also be exported individually for use in shading.
Maya 2019.2 Download
The 2018.2 release also updates FBX export to avoid issues created by animation curves with long tangents. Where a tangent extends beyond the surrounding keys, the animation is now baked into the curve on export.
The previous update, Maya 2018.1, also added a new Unity neutral tonemap: a view transform that emulates Unity’s default viewing pipeline.
Pricing and availability
Maya 2018.2 is available for Windows 7 and 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 and 7.2 WS and CentOS 6.5 and 7.2, and Mac OS X 10.11 and above. It is available on a rental-only basis, starting at $185/month or $1,470/year.
Maya 2018.2 Update
Related posts:
Tags: Aero, autodesk, Bifrost, BOSS, bouding box, density, FBX, fluid simulation, long tangent, Maya, Maya 2018.1, Maya 2018.2, new features, ocean surface, price, smoothing, velocity, vorticity
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a rare glimpse into a woman’s triumph over slavery for herself and her children. All of Harriet Jacobs’ substantial courage, ingenuity, and determination is needed to withstand the dehumanization that occurred under slavery, reducing human beings to pieces of property and depriving them of even the most basic rights. Slave mothers were particularly vulnerable within this institution that denied them the support from a traditional nuclear family and the ability to care for their children themselves. However, in Incidents, Harriet, like her grandmother before her, adapts to the oppression of slavery and still works towards achieving a better life for their children.
The hardships of motherhood under slavery begin before the child is even born. A marriage between slaves requires the permission of the slave-owner, who has the power to separate the husband and wife or to sexually abuse the wife himself. Regardless of whether the father of a slave woman’s child is a fellow slave, a free black man, or a slave-owner, the child follows the condition of the mother. Hence, slave-owning fathers put a monetary value on their own children and slave mothers are denied the traditional family support structure to raise their children. Since the only relationship that is acknowledged under the institution of slavery is the one between a master and slave, mothers are forced to capitulate to the demands of their masters rather than prioritize their child. Grandmother has to wean Harriet’s mother early so that “the babe of the mistress might obtain sufficient food.” As slave children grow up, a slave mother struggles to teach them to “respect themselves and set a virtuous example” due to the constant spiritual and intellectual subjugation that characterizes life under slavery. She also struggles to protect them from physical subjugation, as abuse is rampant and any attempt at defense is viewed as rebellion.
One of the most difficult aspects of motherhood under slavery is the forcible separation of mothers from children. A slave mother “[cannot] call her children her own”, as they are the property of the master. As soon as children grow out of infancy, mothers are “always…in dread” that their children will be sold away from them. Grandmother is left “vainly pleading for mercy” when, despite her best efforts, her youngest son Benjamin is bought by a slave trader. Years later, Harriet recounts that Dr. Flint’s threats to sell her son “lacerated [her] heart.” When slave traders sell mothers and children to different slave-owners, the mothers do not know where their children will be taken, whether they will ever see their children again, or what kind of future their children will have without a mother to raise them.
Even if a mother is able to be around her children, a master’s authority based on economic power usurps a mother’s parental role based on love. Grandmother has to be “grateful for permission” to sit by the side of Nancy, her dying child. Similarly, Harriet is unable to take Ellen to an oculist for her eye inflammation without Mrs. Hobbs’ permission, although she “longed to be entirely free to act a mother’s part towards [her] children.” These incidents exemplify a broader point that slave women are unable to fulfill the duties of motherhood, not because they do not wish to, but because they are constrained by the limitations put in place by slavery.
Despite the degrading conditions of slavery, a slave mother still “has a mother’s instincts, and is capable for feeling a mother’s agonies.” Driven by the innate feeling of a mother’s love, slave mothers find ways to cope with their difficult circumstances and care for their children to the best of their abilities. Grandmother consistently provides emotional support to her children and grandchildren, urging them to have faith and hope despite the seemingly hopeless conditions. Like all mothers, slave mothers want their children to have a better life, which they hope to achieve by first ensuring the freedom of their children. Grandmother plans to do this through her baking business “and each year she laid by a little, which was saved for a fund to purchase her children.”
Similarly, Harriet hopes to ultimately create a “hearthstone of [her] own” in the freedom of the North where she can raise her children as she sees fit. She plans to free her children by hiding in Grandmother’s attic, and thereby tricking Dr. Flint into selling them. Through her plan, she sacrifices her physical comfort, ability to mother her children, and her own freedom for seven years. Once in the North, Harriet immediately decides to go to work so that she “might change the uncertain position of [her] children,” and buy their freedom, which has not yet been assured. After eventually gaining their freedom, Harriet sends her daughter to school and her son to an apprenticeship because she recognizes that education can mitigate the hardships that are still present due to discrimination and lack of economic opportunities.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl sheds light on the particular challenges that slave women faced. A mother-child bond based on love, an undeniably human emotion that asserted the humanity of the slave mother and her children, was inherently at odds with a master-slave relationship based on monetary value and power hierarchy. Slave mothers were often separated from their children, forced to watch the abuse of their children, and unable to forge traditional family bonds due to slavery. In Incidents, despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Harriet and Grandmother demonstrate great persistence and courage in their pursuit of a life of dignity for themselves and their children. They find the resiliency within themselves to not only survive and escape the inhumane conditions of slavery, but also to provide the next generation with the means and the strength to strive towards a better future.