Alias|Wavefront today announced the availability of Maya Personal Learning Edition, which provides users of Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X with free access to a personal-use, non-commercial version of Maya.
Since the product was first announced at Macworld Expo, Alias|Wavefront reports over 67,000 pre-registrations for the software have been received.
Maya Personal Learning Edition provides full access to the toolsets included in the US$7,500 Maya Complete package. NURBS modeling, animation, inverse kinematics, Maya Artisan, Maya Paint Effects, particles, dynamics and rendering are all supported.
Users are granted a free seat of Maya for non-commercial use, with a renewable annual registration. Alias|Wavefront explained that Maya Personal Learning Edition adds a watermark on images and uses a special non-commercial file format. Industry-standard plug-ins are not supported, either. Still, for the price, Alias|Wavefront is counting on attracting creative professionals, students and anyone else with an interest in 3D computer graphics and animation.
Maya Personal Learning Edition can be downloaded free of charge beginning today. By the end of March CD copies will be available from the Alias|Wavefront online store at a cost of US$5 plus shipping and handling.