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Part I ✦ Getting Started with Maya 4.5
Figure 1-3: Windows offered an affordable solution to the high cost of 3D animation.
Here is an example of some multiple CPU rack-mounted Windows or Linux machines
that can be used for rendering.
Maya for the Macintosh
At last! The long awaited release of Maya for Macintosh. Alias|Wavefront helped
drive Apple computers to push their new UNIX-based operating system, OS X, and
refine their use of open GL. Thanks to the hard work of Andrew Pierce and his
development team, Maya is now available for Macintosh. We have to admit that
when Steve Jobs and Richard Kerris announced and demonstrated this at Mac World
for the first time, we felt a great deal of hope. This move breaks down the previous
limits of the older Apple operating systems, enabling Apple to provide a unique
advantage by combining the UNIX workflow performance, previously only possible
on SGI computers, and the user friendliness of the next generation Macintosh. Apple
and Maya users love the ease of use and artist-type workflow that an advanced GUI
provides. It fits as nicely as the handle of a good brush. In contrast, UNIX users love
the capability it provides for many users to tell a networked system specifically what
to do, rather than sticking to predetermined choices, which only enable button
pushing. Today, we have arrived at the crossroads, where the two worlds are meet-
ing for the first time.
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