Bifrost

Unleash visual magic with Bifrost for Maya

Available only in Autodesk Maya

Image courtesy of Pipe Studio

Video: What’s new in Bifrost for Maya

What is Bifrost? 

Bifrost is a visual programming environment inside of Autodesk Maya for creating stunning procedural effects for film, TV, and games.

  • Create realistic simulations and effects—from explosions to cloth.

  • Scatter objects procedurally to build detailed environments. 

  • Create and edit Universal Scene Description (USD) scenes with an open-source USD integration. 

What is Bifrost? 

Bifrost is a visual programming environment inside of Autodesk Maya for creating stunning procedural effects for film, TV, and games.

  • Create realistic simulations and effects—from explosions to cloth.

  • Scatter objects procedurally to build detailed environments. 

  • Create and edit Universal Scene Description (USD) scenes with an open-source USD integration. 

Video: What’s new in Bifrost for Maya
Colorful powder explosion in Maya

Enchant audiences with astounding visuals

From colorful explosions to densely forested worlds, Bifrost empowers aspiring and skilled technical artists to create physically accurate content in the Bifrost Graph, a node-based visual programming environment.
Image courtesy of Amid Rajabi
Blue whale made of points

Build graphs for studio-wide use

Create custom graphs in the Bifrost Graph Editor and package them up for artists at your studio to use easily across different shows, scenes, and shots.
Boiling pot made by Pipe Studio with Bifrost

Embrace open standards

Available as an open-source project, the integration of USD in Bifrost for Maya fosters better collaboration on complex effects and empowers you to customize your pipeline.
Image courtesy of Pipe Studio
Colorful powder explosion in Maya

Enchant audiences with astounding visuals

From colorful explosions to densely forested worlds, Bifrost empowers aspiring and skilled technical artists to create physically accurate content in the Bifrost Graph, a node-based visual programming environment.
Image courtesy of Amid Rajabi

Build graphs for studio-wide use

Create custom graphs in the Bifrost Graph Editor and package them up for artists at your studio to use easily across different shows, scenes, and shots.
Blue whale made of points
Boiling pot made by Pipe Studio with Bifrost

Embrace open standards

Available as an open-source project, the integration of USD in Bifrost for Maya fosters better collaboration on complex effects and empowers you to customize your pipeline.
Image courtesy of Pipe Studio

Features to support your creativity

Simulations and effects 

Deliver natural-looking effects like combustion, snow, particles, or waves with Aero, MPM, Particles, and BOSS systems.

Scattering and instancing

Create large-scale complexity for world building or set dressing with expressive scattering and instancing tools.

Ready-to-use templates

Access a variety of pre-built compounds and graphs to use as a starting point for creating your own effects.

Geometry nodes

Work at the lowest level of mesh creation, organize with component tags, and create geometry inside the Bifrost Graph.

Procedural USD

Assemble, organize, and edit USD assets non-destructively with the flexibility of the Bifrost Graph.

"We used Bifrost to scatter everything that enriched the fantastic forest sequence in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania."

— Thomas Kutschera, Head of Groom CFX, Pixomondo

"Learning Bifrost is like navigating a storm, but with Bifrost Bootcamp, I was soon sailing it with confidence."

— Axel Lelaquet, Rubika Graduate

"With Bifrost for Maya, we were able to get results that were photorealistic and that worked for our show."

— Sean Willis, Senior Technical Artist and Pipeline TD, Crafty Apes

Bifrost Resources

  • House covered in red crystals

    Tutorials

    Bifrost YouTube videos

    Improve your Bifrost knowledge and skillset with videos by industry professionals.

  • Blue blob characters

    Community

    Bifrost users Discord

    Ask questions, browse popular topics, and share knowledge with a growing community of users.

  • Golden honey hive

    Documentation

    Bifrost release notes

    Read about new features and workflows, fixes, and more.

    Image courtesy of Edouard Sisternas

Questions? We have answers.

Bifrost is included in the Maya installer. To download the most recent Bifrost installers, as well as older versions, see Download and Installation.

Bifrost is a procedural content creation tool in Maya for film, TV, and games. It enables you to create realistic simulations and effects from explosions to cloth, scatter objects to build detailed environments, rig characters, and work with USD scenes.

Bifrost is used by 3D artists and technical directors at animation, visual effects, and game development studios.