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Benefits of Maya (Modeling)

polycounter lvl 5
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jdellinger98 polycounter lvl 5
Disclaimer: I started out and feel very confident in 3ds max, I want to switch to Maya since a lot of job openings list Maya. Also if there’s a thread similar you can just link that as well.

So, Starting to learn maya; is there any projects you would recommend I work on that will incorporate a lot of Maya’s toolset to model (I’m environment and props mainly) to get familiar with the software. 

Secondly and more importantly; Is there any features of Maya that are really useful that get overlooked by beginners. I’m still learning unqiue tools and ways to model in 3ds max so I’m sure Maya has its secrets that can be overlooked.

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  • Alex_J
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    Alex_J grand marshal polycounter
    https://www.udemy.com/course/3dsmax-to-maya/

    I've done some other courses by that guy and he's a great teacher ^  

    that might be good place to start. 

    Only specific thing i can recommend since I don't know max is to learn the marking menus and just play around with them. Make sure you understand how you can "flick" to access submenus quickly. For instance, hold ctrl + flick diagonal up right to "grow" command. 

    Little things like this make it so you can work as fast as you can think.

    I do also recommend rebinding some hotkeys. Put convert to vertice, face, edge on your one two and three keys. And object/component toggle on ~ key. This allows me to effortless make selections of anything in fast intuitive way.

    And the bonus tools are essential part of my workflow. You got "convert n-sided face to quad", "select every n-th edge", "convert edge to curve", and all sorts of quick pivot snap tools you'd want to put on a shelf. If you are sending lots of game assets for export those pivot tools are a big time saver.

  • icegodofhungary
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    icegodofhungary interpolator
    I'm the opposite. I've been using Maya forever and just now getting into Max. For your quality of life, I suggest making a custom shelf for your most common modeling tools and actions. This will save you from too many binds and/or digging through menus. You can add any menu item to a custom shelf by pressing ctrl + shift and clicking on the menu item. I also suggest getting Nightshade UV rather than using the default UV tools.

    The biggest difference between Maya and Max that I notice is that the modeling in Maya seems less precise. Where as Max is almost CAD-like at times. If you like using precision, there's snap tools in maya for the grid, vertices, etc. You can also turn on distance snap within the tool settings of each tool. I usually keep my rotate tool to snap every 5 degrees. Also changing the coordinate space under the tool settings can help (world vs object vs component).

    It's kind of hard to come up with tricks off the top of my head, but feel free to PM me any time if you have questions.
  • jdellinger98
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    jdellinger98 polycounter lvl 5
    Thanks for such quick replies!

    I want to apply for a position at a game company and all of my modeling is 3ds max and Zbrush. I know Houdini but, not the biggest fan of the modeling portion of it. Love the non destructive workflow but it takes me so much longer. Mainly use that for visual effects. 

    Its so much harder to learn maya than it was 3ds max I think because learning Max I didn’t know anything about modeling. Now converting, it’s frustrating when I know the steps and how to model something in max but, in maya It feels impossible.

    Also, I have seen things from tutorials and speed models about maya that I think maya can be incredible but, it’s just that learning curve that gets me
  • icegodofhungary
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    icegodofhungary interpolator
    That's funny because I feel the same way about Max. Everything feels 10x harder to make in Max and takes longer. I absolutely hate how snapping and the grid works in Max. But I see videos of people making it look so easy.
  • Andreicus
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    Andreicus polycounter lvl 6
    1) Use the marking menus ctrl+right click and shift+right click

    2) Use the hotbox ( quick menu ) by holding down spacebar, you'll have all the top menus directly in the viewport

    3) Use context menu for every tool to quickly change settings ex. press d key+right mouse button and move the mouse down = reset pivot another example hold down W+right mouse and you can set the simmetry, camera based selection and other things

    4) Download DcBoolManager ( free mel script ), Duplicate Along Path ( free mel script ), Bonus tools and maybe buy the Ninja Dojo plugin ( mel so it works with Maya LT ) that is a time saver for retopo as well as curve modeling ( ex. create tube from curve etc. ) and all the future updates are free.

    5) Set the hotkeys for delete all by type history ( delete the history of all meshes in the scene ) and freeze transformations. I set them to ALT+T and ALT+G respectively

    6) For the main tools use hotkeys. ex. extrude with CTRL+E

    7) Set the number of undos to a value of 200. Dont' set them to infinite unless you like memory leaks.

    8) If modeling became suddenly slower while performing an operation it's because of the history. Delete it. 

    9) Before diving into UVs, delete the history of the mesh.

    10) Wanna make a circle ? Use the circularize tool on one or multiple faces.

    11) Don't delete the history every 2 sec like 90 % of the people. Delete it only when it gives problems, you must apply a deformer or you must uv map the mesh. History is useful, it's not powerful as the stack deformer of Max but you can still tweak the values of every action you did like the width of a bevel for example.

    12) Want a fast retopo with all quads ? Type polyRetopo in the cmd. Better used after a polyRemesh if you don't have enough geo. Save these two scripts to the shelf for later use.

    For projects you can work on hard surface objects similar to this:



    It's not too difficult and you will use a lot of tools. Work from Vitaly Bulgarov.
  • jdellinger98
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    jdellinger98 polycounter lvl 5
    Andreicus; what an amazing reply! Also the crate idea is probably smarter than my first idea. I was going to do a rifle. 

    PLUS BONUS POINTS FOR USING VITALY BULGAROV AS AN EXAMPLE. lol I love his work and in fact he is the reason I started focusing on hard surface modeling.
  • Sage
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    Sage polycounter lvl 19
    Go through Malcom's channel it's pretty good.

    Only tip I can give you is to double the move tool, In those options make sure to turn on smart duplicate and smart extrude. It's shif drag from Max, but better.

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuHLxYrggu6gB4cLKAGo71w
  • SuperFranky
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    SuperFranky polycounter lvl 10
    Just switched to Maya myself after years of using 3ds Max. It was really quite a painless process for me. Just read Maya's documentation and try to do what you're used to doing in Max. Check out highend3d and gumroad for awesome free and paid scripts/plugins too.
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