Pulldownit 5.8, is already available for Maya 2025, this version includes instanced shapes supported in the core solver allowing to create hundreds of instanced rigid bodies almost instantly and a 20% faster simulation with instances, along with several fixes you can review in the version logs page.
Maya 2025 itself brings a number of updates in animation, modeling and rendering. Originally introduced in 3ds Max , Smart Extrude is now available in Maya, this powerful mesh modifier lets to interactively extrude faces in the viewport and eliminates the need to manually repair geometry, you can cut faces partially or even make holes in the model in one run.
Maya 2025 brings several useful updates in animation, a new deformation widget has been added to the Attribute Editor which lets quick review deformers and topology modifiers that affect an object, Bake Deformer now allows to set a custom range of motion for Poses/keys aside other various customer requests included.There is a new Motion Trail Editor with an icon shelf for faster access, this new feature gather all Motion Trail-related utilities in a single spot, also the Dope Sheet has been reworked for a quick, intuitive way to understand, manipulate, and adjust animation timing.
USD plugin update to version 0.27 with the ability to bulk load and unload multiple prims, and the LookdevX editor introduces support for the MaterialX data format alongside USD shaders.
In the simulation field Bifrost now integrates the classic Maya Ocean Simulation System but with several improved features, as new nodes for simulating ocean waves with foam.
Finally Arnold render updates to version 5.4.0 with faster GPU rendering and MaterialX support.
OnMars3D review and test many of Maya 2025 new features in this nice video:
3dModels “Steampunk: New History” Challenge has started!
“Let your imagination run wild and create a unique piece that captures the essence of the steampunk genre, which combines Victorian-era aesthetics with steam-powered machinery and retro-futuristic designs”
Pulldownit Pro license is one of the valuable prizes and there are plenty of them! those interested can check rules and prizes here:
NOTE: Users of Puldownit 5.x cloud floating licenses must install this update to can connect to the licenses server.
Pulldownit 5.8 is here! this new version introduces a Fast Stacking & Deactivation solver which computes up to 4 times faster in massive destruction scenes, in addition instanced shapes are now supported in the core solver allowing to compute thousands of hi-poly objects in dynamics faster and with much less memory overhead.
Animated characters computes faster when colliding and fracturing other objects, and a new Anim Speed Multiplier parameter allows to fine tune the strength of the impact between animated objects and dynamic ones, besides cracker multiplier can be synced to node visibility allowing to decrease or disable the crack effect at any chosen frame.
Wind & Gravity Fields decay is now considered as exclusion volume, animated decay is supported, getting finer control over force fields affecting rigid bodies and fractures.
Regarding shattering, PDI Jagginess gets a new “Asymmetric tessellation” mode which generates nearly 50% fewer polygons with an appearance of rough faces close to that achieved using Uniform Tessellation.
There are also useful improvements to the UI, you can add jagginess to all PDI fragments in scene with one click, and there is a new option to set all dynamic values to default for selected rigid bodies.
Last but not least we have fixed quite a few annoying issues from previous version, making the tool more predictable and reliable than ever. You can review below all performance and usability improvements, and you can check the whole list of fixes in the Pulldownit version logs page
Licensed users can access already Pulldownit 5.8 from his account and there is a demo version for 3ds Max 2024 in the Thinkinetic web site.
Shatter New Features
New Jagginess mode “Asymmetric tessellation”, this new tessellation mode generates nearly 50% fewer polygons than the Uniform one with a similar appearance of rough faces.
Dynamics New Features
New Fast Stacking & Deactivation solver, scenes involving hundreds or thousands of fragments in dynamics now computes up to 4 times faster, besides this new solver highly reduces drift motion of fragments resting in the ground.
Instanced shapes supported in core solver, optimized support for instanced shapes in dynamics, allowing to compute massive simulation of thousands of objects faster and with less memory overhead.
Improved performance in fracture against animated bodies, animated or deforming objects now computes faster when colliding and breaking other objects, besides user can easily control the strength of the impact with the new anim speed multiplier parameter.
Wind & Gravity fields range as exclusion volume, rigid bodies and fragments outside of the field decay area are not affected, animated range is supported.
UI Enhancements
New user parameter Anim Speed Multiplier, allowing to easily control the strength of the impact between animated objects and dynamic ones.
New ability to sync cracker multiplier to node visibility, allowing to modify the strength of the crack effect during the simulation or disable it completely at desired frame.
New option “Add Jagginess to All fragments”, allowing to add jagginess to all PDI fragments in scene with one click.
New Jaggines user prompt, displaying quick info about current jaggy mode and selected fragment state.
New “Fast Stacking” simulation option, user can revert to classic, more accurate, but slower stacking solver by disabling this option.
New UI option “set all dynamic values to default” for rigid bodies.
Hum3D Car render challenge 2023 winners announced!, congratulations to all of them. As sponsor of the competition Thinkinetic is proud to award with a Pulldownit Pro license to the winners.
Take a look to best images and interviews with winners in the official announcement:
NOTE: Users of Puldownit 5.x cloud floating licenses must install this update to can connect to the licenses server.
Pulldownit 5.7 is here! this new version introduces a new Fast Stacking & Deactivation solver which computes up to 4 times faster in massive destruction scenes, in addition instanced shapes are supported for dynamics and shattering so you can compute thousands of hi-poly objects in dynamics seamlessly and with much less memory overhead.
Animated characters now computes faster when colliding and fracturing other objects, and a new Anim Speed Multiplier parameter allows to fine tune the strength of the impact between animated objects and dynamic ones, besides cracker multiplier can be animated allowing to decrease or disable the crack effect at any frame.
Regarding shattering, PDI Jagginess gets a new “Asymmetric tessellation” mode which generates nearly 50% fewer polygons with a similar look of rough faces than when using Uniform Tessellation.
There are also useful improvements to the UI, a new option to create several fractures at once and you can add jagginess to all PDI fragments in scene with one click. Hierarchies of rigid bodies can be auto created just by selecting its parent group, and there is a new option to set all dynamic values to default for selected rigid bodies.
Last but not least we have fixed quite a few annoying issues from previous version,you can review below all performance and usability improvements and you can check the whole list of fixes in the Pulldownit version logs page:
Licensed users can already access Pulldownit 5.7 from his account and there is a demo version for Maya 2024 in the Thinkinetic web site.
Shatter New Features
Shatter it support instanced shapes, instanced shapes are supported and can be shattered and reshattered seamlessly.
New Jagginess mode “Asymmetric tessellation”, this new tessellation mode generates nearly 50% fewer polygons than the Uniform one with a similar appearance of rough faces.
Dynamics New Features
New Fast Stacking & Deactivation solver, scenes involving hundreds or thousands of fragments in dynamics now computes up to 4 times faster, besides this new solver highly reduces drift motion of fragments resting in the ground.
Instanced shapes supported as rigid bodies, PDI solver now supports instanced shapes in dynamics, allowing to compute massive simulation of thousands of objects with less memory overhead.
Improved performance in fracture against animated bodies, animated or deforming objects now computes faster when colliding and breaking other objects, besides user can easily control the strength of the impact with the new anim speed multiplier parameter.
UI Enhancements
New parameter Anim Speed Multiplier, allowing to easily control the strength of the impact between animated objects and dynamic ones.
New ability to animate cracker multiplier, user can now modify the strength of the crack effect during the simulation or disable it completely at desired frame.
New Fracture setup option “One per Shatter Group”, allowing to create several fracture bodies at once from the current selection of objects.
New option “Add Jagginess to All fragments”, allowing to add jagginess to all PDI fragments in scene with one click.
New “Fast Stacking” simulation option, user can revert to classic, more accurate, but slower stacking solver by disabling this option.
New ability to auto assign unique names to duplicated nodes, when selecting nodes to create rigid bodies from them PDI will rename any duplicated node automatically if authorized by user.
Animatable fracture parameters are auto displayed for current selected object.
New ability to create hierarchies of rigid bodies just selecting its parent group.
New UI option “set all dynamic values to default” for rigid bodies.
Thinkinetic sponsors eighth annual Hum3D competition for the best Car render, Pulldownit Pro license is one of the valuable prizes and there are plenty of them! those interested can check rules and prizes here:
Pulldownit 5.5 for 3ds Max comes with important updates, Shatter ittool has been multithreaded and highly optimized, getting up to 4x faster shattering with regards to previous release, allowing to shatter hi-poly models in hundreds of fragments in a few seconds. Creating Chipping areas on the model is now faster as you can discard shatter centers directly in the viewport just by clicking the mouse over it.
Cracks generation computes now 2x faster and Bounded Cracks has been enhanced with the ability to turn them dynamic at the desired frame, allowing to create easily stress cracks that ends up tearing the surface completely at some moment.
Working in complex destruction scenes is easier and more intuitive, in cases of many objects fracturing, dynamic solver has been adjusted to get nice fracture results with default parameters and when two objects collide each other you can decide which of them will break in first place simply by reducing its hardness value.
Regarding the UI, in this new version you can create several fracture objects at once or create several crackers at once and modify them, there are other nice additions like toggle display of all crackers paths with one click.
Last but not least we have fixed quite a few annoying issues from previous version, making the tool more predictable and reliable than ever.
You can review below all performance and usability improvements and you can check the whole list of fixes in the Pulldownit version logs page:
Licensed users can access already Pulldownit 5.5 from his account and there is a demo version for 3ds Max 2024 in the Thinkinetic web site.
Shatter New Features
Shatter it multithreaded, getting up to 4x faster shattering allowing to shatter an object in hundreds and thousands of pieces in a few seconds.
New ability to remove shatter centers directly in the viewport, when in Shatter it draft mode simply by clicking mouse + ctrl key, the selected shatter center is deleted.
Dynamics New Features
Cracks Generation 2x faster, stress cracks or combinations of stress and dynamic cracks now computes 2 times faster.
New ability to generate Bounded Cracks until frame , stress crack propagation can be set to last until desired frame, after that it continues as an usual dynamic crack.
Initial velocity can be set for “activation at frame” fracture bodies, linear and angular velocity can be added to static fractures bodies, setting in this way the initial motion direction when the object becomes dynamic.
More intuitive behaviour in collision between fracture bodies, user can decide which of them will break in first place simply by reducing its hardness value. Besides small fragments collisions don’t trigger fracture anymore, therefore fracture activation starts always at the exact impact moment between the two objects.
UI Enhancements
New Ability to create several fracture bodies at once
New ability to set parameters for several fracture bodies at once.
New ability to set initial velocity at random for many fracture bodies
New ability to edit name of selected Cracker.
New ability to show/hide all Crackerspaths at once.
New ability to set parameters for several Crackers at once.
New ability to create Crackers for all parented curves at once.
Hum3D Sci-Fi Industrial Zone challenge winners announced!, congratulations to all of them. As sponsor of the competition Thinkinetic is proud to award with a Pulldownit Pro license to the winners.
take a look to best images and interviews with winners in the official announcement:
Some users has asked if it is possible to decide the leaning direction of a model before breaking it completely with Pulldownit; the answer is yes, you can do it and very easily.
For choosing the leaning direction you have simply to select the fracture object in PDI Basic Fractures tab, then go to Fractures->Dynamic Properties tab and set initial velocity according to your desired leaning direction, that’s all.
If your initial velocity parameter is greyed out you have to set Basic Fractures->Activation to “at frame” or “At first hit” to enable it. Here a demo video of the effect:
Notice the bigger initial velocity, the leaning will be faster, so better to set it to small values to get a natural motion of the model.
Maya 2024 itself brings a number of updates in animation, modeling and performance, and native support for Apple Silicon chips in Macos systems. This new version introduces a novel Graph Editor Sculpting feature, allowing to drag or smooth animation curves in brush-like style to make adjustments on the fly. In addition, animators con now display all skin weights values directly in the viewport and multiple Skin Clusters are supported. Besides the Time Slider has been redesigned for better handling of keys selection ranges and audio waves visulaization. Finally Autodesk claims of significant performance improvements, especially when playing back animation on complex rigs.
Regarding modeling, Retopology tool has got a number of updates,a new symmetry option allows to get the same exact topology at both sides of the model, and there is new options for preserving edges by angle or component tag, also user can now display both input mesh and retopologized one simultaneously, allowing to compare result and adjust areas visually and there is a new option to pre-check mesh during Retopologize to quickly identify and fix mesh issues.
An there is a new unsmooth option which lets you simplify a smoothed mesh, useful for creating low resolution versions of 3D models, although currently only works with meshes subdivided by the Catmull-Clark method.
The old good Make Live tool has got an useful improvement aswell, now It supports multiple objects, speeding up the drawing of splines or quads over existing geometry.
USD support introduces LookdevX, a new material editor for creating USD shaders inside Maya. It is independent of the classic Maya Hypershade tool therefore counts with its own editor, according to Autodesk it is intended to work seamlessly across multiple DCC tools in the pipeline.
In the simulation field Bifrost updates to version 2.7 introducing a new MPM solver able to simulate snow and high viscous matter like toothpaste, ketchup or ice-cream along with improved volume rendering in the viewport.
AntCgi review and test many of Maya 2024 new features in this nice video:
KineticThoughts 