Wednesday, March 26th, 2025Posted by Jim ThackerAutodesk adds Golaem 9.2 to its Media & Entertainment Collectionhtml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Autodesk has added Maya crowd simulation plugin Golaem to its Media & Entertainment Collection product bundle.The change makes Golaem commercially available again, if not as an individual purchase, the old Golaem online store having been closed when Autodesk acquired the software last year.Autodesk has also released Golaem 9.2, its first update to the plugin.An intuitive crowd animation tool making use of standard Maya workflowsLaunched in 2011, Golaem was designed to provide an intuitive approach to crowd animation, with users able to use Mayas native tools to control crowd behaviour.Later updates added toolsets for building custom AI logic, generating automatic variations of crowd characters, and interactively previewing and editing simulations.Its output is compatible with Arnold, Guerilla Render, Redshift, RenderMan and V-Ray; and users can output to other DCC tools for rendering, including 3ds Max, Houdini and UE5.Recent movies and TV series on which the software was used include Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, and The Mandalorian.Now included in Autodesks Media & Entertainment subscription bundleWhen Autodesk bought Golaem last year, it looked like its availability as a plugin had come to an end: its old online store was closed, and Autodesk announced that it planned to integrate Golaems key IP directly inside [its] current product offerings.That has proved not to be the case, since the firm has just made Golaem commercially available once more, as part of its Media & Entertainment Collection.The subscription-only product bundle also includes Maya, 3ds Max, Arnold, MotionBuilder, Mudbox, ReCap Pro, and access to online services like Autodesk Character Generator.Pricing for the Collection remains unchangedAlthough Golaem used to cost $9,000 for a perpetual license or $5,000/year for a subscription, the price of the Media & Entertainment Collection has not changed. Subscriptions currently cost $335/month or $2,700/year, following a small price rise in January.However, it is no longer possible to buy Golaem individually: while it has a new product website (and Autodesk product logo), the online FAQs state pretty firmly that you can only access the Golaem plugin with a subscription to the Media & Entertainment Collection.Golaem 9.2 removes the need for a license to use Golaem Lite featuresAutodesk has also released a new version of the software, Golaem 9.2.The main change is that you no longer need a license to use the feature set from Golaem Lite, the old lower-priced edition of the software for layout artists.In addition, the old watermarked Personal Learning Edition has been replaced with a standard 30-day Autodesk trial version.There are also a number of workflow updates and bugfixes, listed in the online release notes.Price and system requirementsGolaem 9.2 is compatible with Maya 2022+ on Windows 10+ and CentOS, RHEL, AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux 8.Golaem is available as part of Autodesks Media & Entertainment product bundle, which is available rental-only. Subscriptions cost $335/month or $2,700/year.Read a full list of new features in Golaem 9.2 in the online changelogRead more about the Media & Entertainment product bundle on Autodesks websiteHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Latest NewsAutodesk releases 3ds Max 2026Check out the latest changes to the 3D modeling and rendering app, including updates to retopology, shading and animation.Wednesday, March 26th, 2025Autodesk adds Golaem 9.2 to its Media & Entertainment CollectionMaya crowd simulation plugin goes back on sale as part of Autodesk's product bundle for VFX and games work. 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