Any users of Maya and Harmony for animation?

[Chris]

My daughter's started an animation HND and the above software are
required tools for the course. She's currently got my old MBA (Early
2014) which is obviously not really up to the task.

Does anyone have experience of either or both on Apple Silicon hardware?
I suspect the more RAM the better although both state a minimum of 8GB.

I see that Maya isn't Native yet nor mentions the Apple Silicon GPUs in
tested/certified list of hardware so how well does it run under Rosetta
2? I'd be loathe to get a new Mac and for Maya to be glitchy or poorly
performing. Looking at the Autodesk forum it seems many are either
moving to blender or moving away from Apple as the developers are saying
very little. Not promising...

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

On 19 Sep 2022 at 16:21:34 BST, "Chris" <ithi...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> My daughter's started an animation HND and the above software are
> required tools for the course. She's currently got my old MBA (Early
> 2014) which is obviously not really up to the task.
>
> Does anyone have experience of either or both on Apple Silicon hardware?
> I suspect the more RAM the better although both state a minimum of 8GB.
>
> I see that Maya isn't Native yet nor mentions the Apple Silicon GPUs in
> tested/certified list of hardware so how well does it run under Rosetta
> 2?

In general, even the 'lowly' M1 will run Intel code as fast as an i7 MBP
does, and has faster graphics hardware. The M2 is reckoned to be 10%+
faster. But I have no direct experience of Maya or Harmony,
unfortunately.

I wouldn't trust Autodesk to be competent, but Apple do the one month
return thing so assuming she's got access to licenses via school (or
they do limited demos) I'd say just get one and try it if you can front
the cash.

Definitely 16gig for Maya, ideally 24gig if you're going M2. Avoid the
13" MBP, Air is a better machine in almost all ways.

This looks promising https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaTFPITVAD0

Cheers - Jaimie
--
I always wanted to be someone. I should have been more specific.
-- Lily Tomlin

[David Kennedy]

On 19/09/2022 16:43, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
> On 19 Sep 2022 at 16:21:34 BST, "Chris" <ithi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> My daughter's started an animation HND and the above software are
>> required tools for the course. She's currently got my old MBA (Early
>> 2014) which is obviously not really up to the task.
>>
>> Does anyone have experience of either or both on Apple Silicon hardware?
>> I suspect the more RAM the better although both state a minimum of 8GB.
>>
>> I see that Maya isn't Native yet nor mentions the Apple Silicon GPUs in
>> tested/certified list of hardware so how well does it run under Rosetta
>> 2?
>
> In general, even the 'lowly' M1 will run Intel code as fast as an i7 MBP
> does, and has faster graphics hardware. The M2 is reckoned to be 10%+
> faster. But I have no direct experience of Maya or Harmony,
> unfortunately.
>
> I wouldn't trust Autodesk to be competent, but Apple do the one month
> return thing so assuming she's got access to licenses via school (or
> they do limited demos) I'd say just get one and try it if you can front
> the cash.

And maybe go the Educational discount route?

[Chris]

David Kennedy <davidke...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 19/09/2022 16:43, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
>> On 19 Sep 2022 at 16:21:34 BST, "Chris" <ithi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> My daughter's started an animation HND and the above software are
>>> required tools for the course. She's currently got my old MBA (Early
>>> 2014) which is obviously not really up to the task.
>>>
>>> Does anyone have experience of either or both on Apple Silicon hardware?
>>> I suspect the more RAM the better although both state a minimum of 8GB.
>>>
>>> I see that Maya isn't Native yet nor mentions the Apple Silicon GPUs in
>>> tested/certified list of hardware so how well does it run under Rosetta
>>> 2?
>>
>> In general, even the 'lowly' M1 will run Intel code as fast as an i7 MBP
>> does, and has faster graphics hardware. The M2 is reckoned to be 10%+
>> faster. But I have no direct experience of Maya or Harmony,
>> unfortunately.
>>
>> I wouldn't trust Autodesk to be competent, but Apple do the one month
>> return thing so assuming she's got access to licenses via school (or
>> they do limited demos) I'd say just get one and try it if you can front
>> the cash.
>
> And maybe go the Educational discount route?

Already there. She gets Maya for free via college.

[Chris]

Jaimie Vandenbergh <jai...@usually.sessile.org> wrote:
> On 19 Sep 2022 at 16:21:34 BST, "Chris" <ithi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> My daughter's started an animation HND and the above software are
>> required tools for the course. She's currently got my old MBA (Early
>> 2014) which is obviously not really up to the task.
>>
>> Does anyone have experience of either or both on Apple Silicon hardware?
>> I suspect the more RAM the better although both state a minimum of 8GB.
>>
>> I see that Maya isn't Native yet nor mentions the Apple Silicon GPUs in
>> tested/certified list of hardware so how well does it run under Rosetta
>> 2?
>
> In general, even the 'lowly' M1 will run Intel code as fast as an i7 MBP
> does, and has faster graphics hardware.

It depends on the implementation. Rosetta 2 only implements a fairly old
intel instruction set so any usage of more modern acceleration will be
badly affected.

> The M2 is reckoned to be 10%+
> faster. But I have no direct experience of Maya or Harmony,
> unfortunately.

The advantage of the M2 is >16 GB although, that's outside our budget
realistically.

> I wouldn't trust Autodesk to be competent, but Apple do the one month
> return thing so assuming she's got access to licenses via school (or
> they do limited demos) I'd say just get one and try it if you can front
> the cash.

We could do a demo on my M1 MBP with 16 GB.

> Definitely 16gig for Maya, ideally 24gig if you're going M2. Avoid the
> 13" MBP, Air is a better machine in almost all ways.

Agree. I'm also considering the mini.

> This looks promising https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaTFPITVAD0

It does! Thanks.

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

On 19 Sep 2022 at 19:03:52 BST, "Chris" <ithi...@gmail.com> wrote:

> We could do a demo on my M1 MBP with 16 GB.

Ah! Yes, definitely this.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
"The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean
by infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity."
-- Voltaire

[Chris]

On 20/09/2022 00:21, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
> On 19 Sep 2022 at 19:03:52 BST, "Chris" <ithi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> We could do a demo on my M1 MBP with 16 GB.
>
> Ah! Yes, definitely this.

Not sure why I didn't think of this earlier... d'oh!

Thanks for the help Jamie, as always.

[Chris Ridd]

On 19/09/2022 19:03, Chris wrote:
> Jaimie Vandenbergh <jai...@usually.sessile.org> wrote:
>> On 19 Sep 2022 at 16:21:34 BST, "Chris" <ithi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> My daughter's started an animation HND and the above software are
>>> required tools for the course. She's currently got my old MBA (Early
>>> 2014) which is obviously not really up to the task.
>>>
>>> Does anyone have experience of either or both on Apple Silicon hardware?
>>> I suspect the more RAM the better although both state a minimum of 8GB.
>>>
>>> I see that Maya isn't Native yet nor mentions the Apple Silicon GPUs in
>>> tested/certified list of hardware so how well does it run under Rosetta
>>> 2?
>>
>> In general, even the 'lowly' M1 will run Intel code as fast as an i7 MBP
>> does, and has faster graphics hardware.
>
> It depends on the implementation. Rosetta 2 only implements a fairly old
> intel instruction set so any usage of more modern acceleration will be
> badly affected.

Unless the app uses Apple's accelerate framework to get these "modern"
accelerated features, in which case I *suspect* you won't then be badly
affected by Rosetta.

But ultimately all we can do is guess; she needs to try the desired app
out on an M1/M2, or talk to one of her lecturers/TAs who already is.

--
Chris