Autodesk, Inc. announced [Maya 8.5][1] yesterday with support for Intel-powered Macs, which should be music to ears of many an animator looking to upgrade their workstation.

The new software enables faster completion of complex animation and simulation tasks, giving artists enhanced creative control on multiple platforms.

Marc Petit, Autodesk's Media & Entertainment vice president, says in the press release, "Autodesk Maya 8.5 is our first Universal application of Maya. This multi-threaded software leverages the latest multi-core workstations from Apple. Maya 8.5 equips digital artists with innovative new technologies such as Maya Nucleus, a unified simulation framework, as well as greater productivity."

New features in Maya include the Maya Nucleus Unified Simulation Framework, a unified simulation framework, Maya nCloth, a module built on Nucleus technology which lets you quickly direct and control cloth, and other material simulations, and the addition of a Python scripting support.

The Python support has bindings to the OpenMaya API which gives you an alternative language for plug-in development. In addition, the Maya Python modules can be imported into an external standalone Python interpreter for batch processing. 

There are half a dozen other enhancements which you can [read about on the Autodesk site][2]. Maya ships in two versions, Complete which will set you back $2000 and Ultimate which is a whopping $7000.

[1]: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=7635770 "Maya 8.5"
[2]: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7635643 "New Features Maya 8.5"