Maya the Force be with You
by Ben Board, Big Blue Box Studios

The second meeting of the Guildford IGDA chapter took place on February 7th, and this time was sponsored by Alias|Wavefront. In exchange for ten valuable minutes of our Thursday evening spent listening to him talk about the new initiatives Alias are using to promote the use of their top-end 3D art package, Maya, Mark Cass, Games Business Manager for Alias, agreed to have his corporate credit limit tested by keeping GGDev whistles wet.

Mark talked about the Maya Personal Learning Edition - an innovative idea intended to widen access to and skills in Maya by distributing for free a near-complete version of the software. He also talked about funding models available to studios to allow them to evaluate Maya without incurring large startup costs.

Following Mark's brief briefing, the general opportunity offered by these meetings, namely to drink, network and generally hang out with other members of this close community, was resumed. Together with another technically-oriented Alias colleague (whose name, if I possessed any journalistic skills whatsoever, I would have recorded - apologies to him), Mark continued to take informal questions from the collected masses until time was called.

Thanks to Mark Cass and his colleagues at Alias who helped to make this happen.

February Gathering Pictorial

Mark Cass gives his talk…

…to the rapt Guildford crowd.

"Hellooooo Guildford!"

Stacey and Mo are told about Maya Personal Learning Edition.

'I love you, man!' 'No man, I love you!' 'No,' etc.

The evening in full swing...

Frosty gets the IGDA knowledge.

The Alias advocates aid alcohol-addled attendees.

- end -