Attached Link: Maya Website

Maya Personal Learning Edition now available for Maya Complete 5

Maya Personal Learning Edition is a special version of Maya software, which provides free access to Maya for non-commercial use. It will give 3D graphics and animation students, industry professionals, and those interested in breaking into the world of computer graphics (CG) an opportunity to explore all aspects of the award winning Maya Complete software in a non-commercial capacity.

Good idea, but i dont think you can export anything that can be used in other programs, i could be wrong though, i never used PLE. However, I did happen to nab the free Cinema 4D ver6 from the Computer Arts mag this week, yep, after a little over 2 MONTHS of waiting for it to reach the states, I would have to say its well worth the wait. Regards E

I have Maya PLE and no, you cannot export anything with it.

Can you import anything into it? How big can you render?

Don't know about importing, haven't tried that yet. When it renders it has large letters across the image "NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE" or some such nonsense. As if a beginner could ever do anything that would sell commercially. ;o)

nope i downloaded it and deleted it, can't export, watermark on images, i admit ok it's free, but if i did happen to make something i liked, i would want to export it.

It's a complicated program, and worth learning because of the commercial possibilities. If you can learn Maya with the PLE, then consider buying it AFTER you learn how to use it. Our local college has classes in Maya. I"m considering buying the educational edition.

i too try to begin with the cinema4d r6 i got in a cover mag last month... renders are limited so far to 640x480 but import and export both work just that i am lost because i am a total newbbie at 3d odelling and i have trouble even making simpel things... but this is just a matter of time and learning i guess. anyone could point me at some tuts or advices ? i hear dthe learning curve of c4d was a bit harsh though not discouraging

Yeah..they offered the same version in the British 3d mags a while back..no export, and no save..Pretty Lame Excuse..;) It's a shame, 'cause it looks like it would be fun..

We call these demo programs not free ones. Ya had me thinking they where giveing it away now. I used Maya in school. Let me just say it has a learning curve but is vey powerful. The physics stuff amazed me. But not a good ap to start with. I've always found it hard to learn if I cant at least save something to continue later.

Riddokun, go to the maxon website for tutorials on C4d. There are loads of tutorials up there, each one clearly stating beside it which versions it will work with. Anything with a v6 or lower should be just fine for you (tutorials with larger numbers will use features you don't have) Or check out the c4d forum here. There are lots of threads about this version of cinema in there at the moment. Shanna :-)

You can save your scenes in Maya PLE, but only in its own special format. But it's good for learning the program. :)

It puts a big ugly watermark on every project. I have one of the PLE versions and I found it most annoying to even play with with that watermark. It has a non-Maya standard file format just for the PLE and does not export, so what the hell do they have to put the watermark in there for. That sucks!

Also, I checked out the price of the educational version and it's still pretty pricey. I noticed someone mentioned the educational version. The only reasonable prices I've seen for educational versions is Adobe software, and they are the same as the commercial versions. I don't know about Maya and if it has limited capabilities.

The educational version of Maya Unlimited is about $800 at www.journeyed.com. (Maya Complete is about $600. The difference, as far as I know, is that Complete does not have hair, cloth and fluid dynamics.) Compared to the regular price of Unlimited, which is about $7,000, I think $800 is quite a discount. (For Complete, the regular price is about $2,000.) I think that the educational version is the same as the regular version, you're just not supposed to use it for commercial work. I agree, the watermark in PLE is quite big and distracting. I guess they didn't want people to make commercial renders with this demo version. At least this PLE does not expire, unlike some other demos...

Unless this has changed recently, the educational version is time limited, either a full year or just a school year. Alias site should say somewhere.

This is what JourneyEd.com says: "This license is a perpetual license that includes installation support only, this license does not include upgrades."

You're right, I checked journeyed and alias sites, Maya Unlimited and Maya Complete licenses are not time limited anymore (use to be). Good deal then.

It's great that they did away with the limited time license, isn't it? I wouldn't even consider getting it if it was only for one year. But this way the educational price is really a great deal. I hope there isn't any other limitation I don't know about. Do you?

Exactly. That's why I didn't get the educational version two years ago. The only limitation I know of is not being allowed to use it for commercial use. I'm also not sure if you can upgrade from it to Maya 5.?? or 6.0 at a later time. Go to alias.com and click on the education link and I guess look around. All the info should be there. There might be some more knowing people about this in the highend3d.com maya forums. I'm way too busy to look myself, but if you buy maya, the highend3d.com site is a good site to know about.

I think they talk about upgrading Maya on the JourneyEd site (educational to educational and educational to commercial), so I think it's possible. Thanks for the highend3d.com idea, I'll check it out. :)