Beginner Question yet again

jeramy79

Okay, so my trial with XSI has run out. So far I've been through Blender, Silo and XSI. I liked XSI, but looking at alot of online schools, they only teach Maya or 3DS Max.

My main thing here is that I'm going to spend money getting the full version software, but which one will I benefit more from? 3DS or Maya? My focus is going to be game art. I'm not worried about learning curves or anything. Which one of those two would you guys suggest?

Also, I'm in the military and will be deploying my butt off over the next year so I'm pretty much going to be learning from video tutorials. So depending on which software package you suggest, where can I find some excelent tutorials for beginners. I don't mind paying for tutorials either. For XSI I was using www.digitaltutors.com and they were pretty good. They don't really offer a beginners for 3DS though and I haven't really found anywhere else.

Tulkamir

Either package should do ya just fine. Both are very widely used, and the switch from one to the other isn't all that jarring.

As for video tutorials, there's a shit tonne out there. I'd check out a few and see what you like best, just google for it. I really like the Gnomon stuff, but I think it's pretty expensive (I got a bunch through school a couple years back, so I dunno how expensive exactly.)

PixelMasher

I would recommend Max probably dude, I think its cheaper than maya and most people I know tend to say its more user friendly than maya, although you can really get under the hood with maya.

also, most of the lessons in video tuts you should be able to apply the theory behind it to any package once you get a solid grasp of the basic toolsets. they are just tools on the belt, developing the eye for what looks good and workflow that gets you there are key I think.

gnomon and Eat3D have awesome tutorials.

pior

Max will give you a much clearer picture of the tools at hand (since it grays out what you can't use at a given time, and only shows the tools relevant to your current edits).

Maya menus will always be in your face no matter what, which is great if you know them perfectly but can cause a lot of frustration since it is so cluttered.

If you have a bit of a programmer mind you might enjoy Maya. But if you don't have any interest in code or have no one with his own custom shortcuts available near you, avoid it, it will slow you down (many, MANY mel scripts to search for, install, or write)

Good luck!

MagicSugar

jeramy79 wrote: »

I'm not worried about learning curves or anything. Which one of those two would you guys suggest?

If learning curve is not an issue with you, I'd go with industry workhorse Max. Otherwise Maya (latest editions), which I think is faster and simpler to use for modeling.

Before purchasing, I recommend trying out the free eval for both and line up some game style modeling/texturing tutorials to test.