Softimage (XSI) have best modeling tools ever! It so easy to do complex subdiv hipoly modeling, and editing geometry topology! All over 3d modeling soft is braindamage after XSI! Autodesk must BURN in hell for killing Softimage!
Throwing a wrench into this, i want the all in one, 1 app i hate jumping around, learning the new thing, by now we should have had it. Zbrush, Max modeling, substance painting, marmoset rendering / baking, guess maya animations. Can call it the QuadM (1st name idea not a bad one.)
Otherwise, max,
blender probably would've been my real pick with all the updates, the issue is its handling, guess i am just to used to max's free form controls that using blender makes me want to Kamehameha my entire pc.
I'm a Maya person, that's just what I've always used, there's faster alternatives for sure. But I've always loved the feel of Maya. And Substance is my go to for texturing, nothing beats it really. Substance is just fast, you can get yourself 85% of the way there with just a couple of smart materials. Zbrush? eh I've used it a little bit, going to start using it more for sure, it seems very powerful. But, the UI/UX can feel a little cumbersome sometimes. Especially when coming from the controls in Maya.
I love love love working in Substance Painter. It's kinda annoying that I put so much time into creating PBR masks for my work before the PBR workflow...and it was never as good. And with SP's generators, smart masks and smart materials, it's ridiculously easy. When I found SP, I took a huge sigh of relief and thought, '...well, finally this is the workflow we need for texturing.'
Although I have very talented friends that refuse to use it. They prefer node building all their mats. It works well for procedural, but SP saves so much time!
On a side note...I'm a slightly older gent, and I learned on Max and moved to Maya in the 2000s. One year ago I moved to Blender just as it was basically moving to 2.8, and I've never looked back. I absolutely love it now. It's an easy to use beast.
I love working with Houdini. It's a nightmare to learn it at first, but once you do everything is just so polished and works so well. Out of all the 3D software I've tried (ZBrush, Blender, Maya, Max, Modo) it's by far the cleanest, most stable and most well rounded. Even the pricing structure is great. Only problem I have with it is that the regular 3D modeling side isn't as well built up feature wise, so it's unreasonably slow to make ordinary models in compared to other software.
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Although I have very talented friends that refuse to use it. They prefer node building all their mats. It works well for procedural, but SP saves so much time!
On a side note...I'm a slightly older gent, and I learned on Max and moved to Maya in the 2000s. One year ago I moved to Blender just as it was basically moving to 2.8, and I've never looked back. I absolutely love it now. It's an easy to use beast.
Only problem I have with it is that the regular 3D modeling side isn't as well built up feature wise, so it's unreasonably slow to make ordinary models in compared to other software.