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Can I get into the Industry without knowing any other 3D package than Blender

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arun_WASD polycounter lvl 4
I've been learning 3D modeling and stuffs in Blender for about a year now, I'm still not very good. I've started to get this fearful thought because of some forums that 'What if all my effort and time put in learning Blender is a waste' not modeling wise but workflow wise. So I've come to ya'll for some advice. I want to get into the game dev Industry as a guy who models hard surface stuffs. I just love hard surface modeling and I'm trying hard every day to get good at it.

So I'm very comfortable with Blender. My question is I read in lot of places that if you wanna get into the Industry you definitely have to know 3ds Max or Maya. Is this true ? I even have the student version of 3ds max but its just so hard to do the transition. Will the Industries hire if the artist is talented regardless of the software he uses or the knowing autodesk softwares a necessary, If yes I will focus to learn 3ds max from the basics if not i'll just focus on improving my modeling skills in Blender! But anyway I know that I have a long way to go.

Cheers and Thank you.

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  • JordanN
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    JordanN interpolator
    arun_WASD said:
    So I'm very comfortable with Blender. My question is I read in lot of places that if you wanna get into the Industry you definitely have to know 3ds Max or Maya. Is this true ? I even have the student version of 3ds max but its just so hard to do the transition. Will the Industries hire if the artist is talented regardless of the software he uses or the knowing autodesk softwares a necessary, If yes I will focus to learn 3ds max from the basics if not i'll just focus on improving my modeling skills in Blender! But anyway I know that I have a long way to go.

    Cheers and Thank you.
    3D Art is so competitive the more weaknesses you have, the lower your chances will be at qualifying.
    If you can't find 10 studios who openly advertise or put in their job description Blender skills are necessary, then that's your first red flag you're at a disadvantage if you only have one software expertise.
  • Meloncov
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    Meloncov greentooth
    It isn't impossible to find a job without knowing Max/Maya, but spending two to three weeks getting a solid basic knowledge of one of those two will help you get hired more than anything else you could do in a similar amount of time.
  • sacboi
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    sacboi high dynamic range

    Now if you're interested in hardsurface and finding the crossover too Max a grind, there's plenty of pro authored paid workflows that'll hand hold the beginner through the entire asset creation process, from blockout to final off/online render, in fact they've been an absolute godsend in terms of my own progression jumping back & forth between the two. So checkout Tim Bergholz over on Gumroad, his user friendly tutorial narration makes following along step by step a breeze.

    https://gumroad.com/timb

  • arun_WASD
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    arun_WASD polycounter lvl 4
    Meloncov said:
    It isn't impossible to find a job without knowing Max/Maya, but spending two to three weeks getting a solid basic knowledge of one of those two will help you get hired more than anything else you could do in a similar amount of time.
    Alrighty then, I will try and learn Max for a while now. Thank you.
  • arun_WASD
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    arun_WASD polycounter lvl 4
    sacboi said:

    Now if you're interested in hardsurface and finding the crossover too Max a grind, there's plenty of pro authored paid workflows that'll hand hold the beginner through the entire asset creation process, from blockout to final off/online render, in fact they've been an absolute godsend in terms of my own progression jumping back & forth between the two. So checkout Tim Bergholz over on Gumroad, his user friendly tutorial narration makes following along step by step a breeze.

    https://gumroad.com/timb

    wow those tutorials look so cool, will check them out. Thank you.
  • marks
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    marks greentooth
    Yes you absolutely can. But why would you CHOOSE to handicap yourself?
  • FourtyNights
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    FourtyNights polycounter
    TL;DR

    My active core toolset:

    ZBrush (for organic sculpting, as I'm a character artist)
    Blender (my main 3D modeling app for HP hard surface (subsurface modeling) and LP optimization, retopology and UVs)
    Marmoset Toolbag 3 (for baking & rendering)
    Substance Painter (for texturing [obviously, lol] and sometimes for Iray rendering, but not often though)

    My extra toolset:

    Marvelous Designer (still learning to fit it into my core toolset pipeline)
    Unreal Engine 4 (MT3 is 85% of the time all I need for rendering my real-time assets, but sometimes I'd like to get a bit more advanced with materials)
    Wrap3 (for shrinkwrapping an existing topology to accelerate manual retopology)
    GIMP/Ps (for creating more complex masks and converting 16-bit images to 8-bit to get a nice dithering)

    My rare/occasional toolset:

    handplane (great tool for converting tangent spaces to another, but it's in a rare use since nowadays everything is starting to be synced to Mikktspace)
    Maya 2017 (for skinning rigs, since it has a multi-color feedback for weights)

    Summa summarum, in general I don't know Max or Maya too much, except I'm going to learn Maya's rigging/weight painting tools. If I just don't happen to know how to use Max or Maya at the moment while writing this, I don't think it doesn't make me handicapped, since I have all these tools around my precious Blender. I started with Blender and all these other tools just came along.

    So, my advice is: Start learning other addivitve softwares around Blender, and you're not so handicapped anymore. Take a peek at Max and/or Maya, but IMO it's not mandatory. (;
  • arun_WASD
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    arun_WASD polycounter lvl 4
    TL;DR

    My active core toolset:

    ZBrush (for organic sculpting, as I'm a character artist)
    Blender (my main 3D modeling app for HP hard surface (subsurface modeling) and LP optimization, retopology and UVs)
    Marmoset Toolbag 3 (for baking & rendering)
    Substance Painter (for texturing [obviously, lol] and sometimes for Iray rendering, but not often though)

    My extra toolset:

    Marvelous Designer (still learning to fit it into my core toolset pipeline)
    Unreal Engine 4 (MT3 is 85% of the time all I need for rendering my real-time assets, but sometimes I'd like to get a bit more advanced with materials)
    Wrap3 (for shrinkwrapping an existing topology to accelerate manual retopology)
    GIMP/Ps (for creating more complex masks and converting 16-bit images to 8-bit to get a nice dithering)

    My rare/occasional toolset:

    handplane (great tool for converting tangent spaces to another, but it's in a rare use since nowadays everything is starting to be synced to Mikktspace)
    Maya 2017 (for skinning rigs, since it has a multi-color feedback for weights)

    Summa summarum, in general I don't know Max or Maya too much, except I'm going to learn Maya's rigging/weight painting tools. If I just don't happen to know how to use Max or Maya at the moment while writing this, I don't think it doesn't make me handicapped, since I have all these tools around my precious Blender. I started with Blender and all these other tools just came along.

    So, my advice is: Start learning other addivitve softwares around Blender, and you're not so handicapped anymore. Take a peek at Max and/or Maya, but IMO it's not mandatory. (;
    Wow thanks for this! And I've decided to stick with blender till I get super good at modeling. To model something that would take 5 mins in blender takes around 15 mins in Max for me, so i've skipped the idea of learning Max. I am learning substance painter side by side, it is super fun!
  • Lechooga
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    Lechooga null
    I'm kinda in the same boat. Currently working professionally with Blender, Substance Suite, PS, Reality Capture, and Unity. I'm wondering if not having much experience with Maya/Max is a huge handicap. If I were to spend time learning another 3D tool I'd like to learn Modo, but it sounds like the expectation is that I know Maya or Max working in the industry.

    My question is why? What parts of Maya and Max are important to working with an art team? If I'm going to spend a couple weeks of my free time learning them I'd like to be able to focus on the important bits. I appreciate any input.
  • CrackRockSteady
    Lechooga said:
    I'm kinda in the same boat. Currently working professionally with Blender, Substance Suite, PS, Reality Capture, and Unity. I'm wondering if not having much experience with Maya/Max is a huge handicap. If I were to spend time learning another 3D tool I'd like to learn Modo, but it sounds like the expectation is that I know Maya or Max working in the industry.

    My question is why? What parts of Maya and Max are important to working with an art team? If I'm going to spend a couple weeks of my free time learning them I'd like to be able to focus on the important bits. I appreciate any input.
     if you get a job working in-house at a studio, especially a larger studio, the chances are good that the team uses a suite of tools or pipeline that has been built around specific software that everyone on the team uses (generally Max or Maya).  Probably a lot of time and money went into developing these tools/pipeline to make things as efficient as possible for the team, no one wants to write a bunch of new tools or figure out how to work one guy's Blender preference into the mix.
  • PixelMasher
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    PixelMasher veteran polycounter
    Yea most tools and pipelines are built around max or maya. Tons of custom plugins and toolsets, especially if the studio has their own in house engine.

    Ticking the box of programs you are familiar with can help with the HR filter, where they are not judging applicants on artistic ability, but more on a list of relevant skills. Those people are still often gatekeepers at studios, so do whatever you can to make their descisions easier and actually have them hand over your portfolio to art leads for the artistic validation. 

    Spending a couple weeks to get familair with the autodesk suite isnt that much of a sacrifice. A lot of studios value hiring people that have a quick ramp up time, especially when they are in panic mode and hiring mid production. Stubbornly sticking to blender is like swimming upstream for junior artists, you are just putting obstacles in your own way. 
  • Lechooga
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    Lechooga null
    I'm convinced and I'll definitely be spending the time to get used to them. Just curious about folks that use Modo? Do most studios have a single software package that's used, or do they tend to let folks use whatever they like so long as the results meet requirements?
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    Coming from Maya to Modo, the way I've pitched it to people is that Modo's modeling tools are more powerful and stable out of the box than Maya out of the box.  Both can reach parity, but Maya will likely need more drastic tools (which you CAN find and PAY for) to get to Modo's out-of-the-box power.

    Some people at our studio use Modo, but overall we're a mixed bag.  But animation is in Maya.

    Paul's generally right with his assertion.  So much of the pipeline on the rigging and animation end is Maya and Max preferred by a lot of technical artists and animators that it is likely you will be using either in the completion of asset creation on the latter end of the production cycle.  Blender has been used before, just not as often comparatively.
  • FullShane
    All the studios I've been to mentioned Maya almost exclusively. Square Enix, Polygon Pictures, Digital Frontier, for example, all use Maya. There's more than just Blender/Maya/3ds to be familiar with, of course, but it's safe to say Maya is the standard, so I'd get a grasp on Maya if you want to work for them. I'm not so sure what they'd require of contracted workers but I'd imagine it'd just make your life easier to use Maya regardless.
  • [Deleted User]
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    [Deleted User] insane polycounter
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  • Lechooga
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    Lechooga null
    I appreciate all the replies. Thanks so much for the input! And thanks to OP for starting the convo. It's been on my mind recently.
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