Replacing 3dsmax's Modeling / UV mapping? Software recommendations please

Joseph Silverman

Hi polycount. I learned to model on 3dsmax (and a little gmax, back in the day) and while I'm fairly literate in a lot of 3d software, I've always come back to max for modelling (because of the tools) and UV mapping (mostly just because I'm used to it.)

However, I work for a fairly small company right now where I have some judgement in purchasing, and I'm really interested at this point in replacing my reliance on 3dsmax as a modelling tool with a more agile, cheaper program or with Maya. I've dipped my toes in Modo in the past, and it's probably going to be my choice if I don't get any great suggestions, but the mindset for working effectively and very quickly in it feels pretty alien to me, and I'm not sure I want to devote the time right now if there are other strong options.

So, especially if you've made the switch yourself, what programs or plugins would you recommend to develop a max-like approach to modeling without 3dsmax?

I'd love general input that might help other people interested in this too, but here are some of the parts of max I personally use daily:

• The basic cut/connect/chamfer/welding tools, frequently with their respective rollout controls.
• The 'graphite' tools, especially all of the ones that relate to retopo (step build, conform, etc.)  Sometimes the selection tools, usually to expedite clean up or optimize meshes.
• Modifiers that can non-destructively alter the entire object's shape (bend, ffd, etc)
  The UVW mapping modifiers, with TexTools.
• 'Shift' extruding edges.
• Opening and altering very large (~1gb+) meshes, such as scan data, without crashing or freezing on a high end consumer PC

gnoop

Joseph Silverman said:

• The basic cut/connect/chamfer/welding tools, frequently with their respective rollout controls.
• The 'graphite' tools, especially all of the ones that relate to retopo (step build, conform, etc.)  Sometimes the selection tools, usually to expedite clean up or optimize meshes.
• Modifiers that can non-destructively alter the entire object's shape (bend, ffd, etc)
  The UVW mapping modifiers, with TexTools.
• 'Shift' extruding edges.
• Opening and altering very large (~1gb+) meshes, such as scan data, without crashing or freezing on a high end consumer PC

Blender .   Except its UV mappin is not modifier but works on sub-object level.     TextTools are actually code borrowing  from Blender or inspired by Blender .         Halph of graphite tools  appearad in Blender long before Max.   

The last point unfortunally is Max  or Maya only  

Imo Blender is most similar to Max soft by design .   You can set same vieport navigation and subobject selection to 1234.  Just google it.

Mark Dygert

You need to also factor in the needs of other people at the studio, tools programmers, animators, which engine are you working with, marketing people, outsource and contractors.

Can your studio support several different types of software at different stages of the pipeline?

Modo isn't a slouch when it comes to animating, it can probably handle a game animation pipeline just fine but there are more tools and plug-ins for Max and Maya and the talent pools are much larger in those camps.

AtticusMars

Regarding Blender, someone developed a keymap and set of scripts for it called BMax that is designed to make it similar to 3DS Max.

https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?306867-BMax-Tools-or-how-I-left-3ds-Max-)

Joseph Silverman

Thanks, would love more input. Blender is definitely worth considering, but I handle very large assets often and performance is a pretty fundamental need. It failed initial tests by me pretty badly.

Mark: That's a great point to raise, and definitely factored in with my case. I should definitely have included it in the first post for future readers who find this via search.

In my particular case: I'm a significant % of our game asset production, but as an organization we have reasons to heavily prefer Maya. The major motivating factor for this thread is a desire to save a significant % of per-project budget by both removing a max license and minimizing hours of adjustment time/reduced output speed for me.

Chimp

Max is max, there isn't much like it -- any of the other major packages have gone in their own directions and that's their value (and max's value). Could you explain your reasons for leaving it a bit better? More agile? 

musashidan

gnoop said:
  Halph of graphite tools  appearad in Blender long before Max.   

Graphite tools are an incorporation of the old Polyboost plugin tools going back to 2005 so this isn't the case at all.

I'm also curious why OP wants to swap out. If cost is a factor then why choose Maya as an alternative? Also, more importantly,  as @Mark Dygert says, won't the entire pipeline have to change?

Eric Chadwick

Yeah, what exactly do you mean by "agile" that Max doesn't provide?

thomasp

in my experience maya (up to and including 2016) does not cope too well with complex assets. not in the viewport, the modelling tools are not fast out of the box and importing a big OBJ is a pain for starters.

blender does so-so for me in this regard. object editing is faster here than on comparable meshes in older versions of max but it does not handle huge scenes in the viewport comparably well. still, it's the closest to the max workflow i've found and very customizable to make it feel familiar in the end (which can take a huge amount of time setting up up-front though since the default behaviour is so non-standard).

anyway i would recommend to always optimize a scan mesh before importing into any of these tools. i also  tend to cut down texture size to something manageable for a viewport-proxy so the app does not lag needlessly. that's assuming you need to load in a scan as reference to build something on top of it.

Ace-Angel

If you want to be agile in Max, you need to start using Quads and Custom Panels/Toolbars.

Yes, Max has about 2 ways to cut a polygon, 3 ways to select a face, and 4 to assign a modifier by proxy, and all of them are hidden behind clunky panels which close based upon specific commands.

However, if you rig the UI so that you always have access to these tools on the fly, or rebind your keys so that everything is under the palm of your hand rather then all over the place, it will be much better in the long run. Just remember to save your UI on a flash drive or something to always have access to it.