Tools developer Autodesk today announced Maya 2009, the latest version of its popular 3D modeling software. The announcement coincides with Maya's ten-year anniversary, and is being demonstrated at the SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles, which begins today. New features in Maya 2009 include "nParticles," which simulate a variety of particle effects; more control over the render pass; and new animation layering features drawn from MotionBuilder 2009, also announced today. Said Maya beta tester Mike Romey, senior technical director at special effects firm Zoic Studios, "With the solid mental ray multi-render pass workflow, production will be far more effective. This new workflow will optimize render times for multiple render layers and, in turn, elevate the quality of work." Today Autodesk also announced ImageModeler 2009, which generates 3D models from 2D images, and Stitcher Unlimited 2009, which creates wide-angle and spherical panoramic images. They are the first versions of the software to be released under the Autodesk brand since Autodesk purchased developer Realviz earlier this year. Maya 2009 will be supported on the Windows (64-bit and 32-bit versions) and Linux (64-bit version) operating systems as well as Mac OS X for Intel-based Macintosh computers (32-bit version).