Do you recommend Polyboost for new Max user?

benny

Hi
I am fairly decent at Maya modeling (not great).
I am trying to learn Max now. I watched a Gnomon Tutorial which the tutor demostrated Polyboost. do you recommend me to get Polyboost at this stage?

Josh_Singh

the most current version of polyboost kicks ass.
the you might want to play with it a little bit. But If your talking about the Ian Joyner Gnomon Dvd's he does some cool stuff with polyboost, and honestly I would never want to re-topologize a hi-res model with out some of the polydraw tools.
I recommend it.

Thegodzero

It has some great features, i don't use it too much but when i do it saves hours or work. Id say got for it.

aesir

nothing wrong with trying out new programs, but it would probably work out better if you take it one at a time.

rawkstar

i don't think its a bad thing integrating polyboost into your workflow early on, it does have a few tools that i can't live without so go for it. ofcourse alot of times standard max tools do the job.

benny

Cool. I will buy it.

Ghost_Rider, yes, It was the Gnomon Ian Joyner tutorial that go me into Polyboost.

benny

Also, is it easier to unwrap VU's in Max for texturing?
As I understand it, it is at least more user friendly/easier to model in Max, correct?

rawkstar

yeah its pretty easy to unwrap in max, it has pelt mapping and relax tools which make it all a piece of cake.

benny

God I just wish I started with Max and not Maya.

Archanex

Benny- I can sympathize with you man, I'm just learning maya this semester after having spent 3 years with Max. It's so frustrating because right now I honestly can't see why anybody uses Maya, there's so many things that Maya makes extremely difficult that are so easy in Max. At least as far as Modeling and Texturing goes.

I'm hoping once we get more into it I'll see the advantages of Maya

I'm checking out this polyboost thing, it looks really freaking sweet! Thanks for the info

thomasp

yep, but the thing is just that whatever workflow you pick up first will be really hard to let go.
seems in max you generally get results quicker tho. i only have to look at the timeframes set for different teams here: the max team has a quicker turnaround and it's not like we had a shortage of experienced maya dudes.

re: polyboost - i think a beginner should learn the base package first before diving into addons like that. and personally i like to be independent of plugins as much as possible, but that's probably just me. makes it all a bit easier, especially since this sort of 3rd party tools often suddenly get's discontinued. life's end?

Eric Chadwick

I believe in using the best tools I find, regardless of being stock or not. Even stock tools change or disappear. Bummer yeah, but I think you need to stay on top of things to stay competitive.