Which one is the best....
Hi guys and girls
Wanna know something, dont know if this was asked before, but what is the more preferable 3d application to model stuff in
Im learning modo 401 and it is awesome to me. Since people would say but it depends on what you want to use it for. But overall, what would be the better program to learn that can do those cool effects. Yes i also know its sometimes a combination of a couple, but surely the head artists in this forum has their prefs and dislikes on other apps. I thought modo is quite easy to learn and co do quite well in the 3d industry. Any thoughts?:)
Wanna know something, dont know if this was asked before, but what is the more preferable 3d application to model stuff in
Im learning modo 401 and it is awesome to me. Since people would say but it depends on what you want to use it for. But overall, what would be the better program to learn that can do those cool effects. Yes i also know its sometimes a combination of a couple, but surely the head artists in this forum has their prefs and dislikes on other apps. I thought modo is quite easy to learn and co do quite well in the 3d industry. Any thoughts?:)
Replies
Theres studios using all of these, and you can use them all across all fields.
Which one to use? good question...learn them all maybe? or check out studios you like from games or films you like, and see what they use, and learn those. or download PLE or demo versions and check out which one suits you best.
At the end of the day, "its not the tool, its the artist" stands pretty true...
Just bad that some apps cannot handle so many poly count, or can do this or that special effect, or this program animates easier than the other one, its always a mission to go through a lot of programs on the market and every time you hear of something new, you find out things are easier in this application to do the things you really want, so you turn out learning that again..and so on. Sometimes you look at a movie...and wonder..what program did they use...or is this all Maya? / Lightwave? / ect? its a interesting topic and one just wonders over how many applications do they jkump to make a proper movie ect.
That's how I see it anyway. Can I get a witness?
I agree with your advice up to this point. Some programs clearly are easier to work with than others when doing specific tasks. While it could be entirely possible to arrive at the same end result, if it takes longer, educes carpal tunnel and makes the artists life hell, why use it? ... *cough* Blender-MilkShape-Rhino-Truespace *cough* ...
That really depends on what "stuff" your modeling? Organic or hard surface? Low poly or high? Deformable meshes or static?
There really isn't one app to rule them all because there is so much we need them all to do. Most dabble in the others specialties but sometimes you almost wish they didn't.
Most widely used in the industry and stands you a good chance of getting you hired?
3dsmax and Maya: Specialize in one and dabble in the other so if you had to switch for a job you could easily get up to speed.
Silo: It is buggy but a big step forward as far as UI functionality goes. I say give it a go, and at the very least it will help you customize other apps to work a bit smoother. It does appear to be dying off tho so don't get too comfy with it.
Modo: I've not had much experience with this but I hear great things, but I hear bad things too...
Zbrush and Mudbox: Mudbox has usability going for it but lags behind ZB quite a bit and isn't as widely adopted.
I am primarily a Maya man although I am not married to it. I've used it at every job I've had in film and in games and it gets the job done for me. My friends/coworkers in the industry swear on their mother's lives that Max is better for Environments (I am an Environment Artist) but I tell you that it really doesn't matter. I am just as fast as my friends that are masters at MAX. 3D is 3D the key is just understanding the basic principles, being open to trying new things, and tons of practice.
Fuck yeah, modeling one vertex at a time ftw
That about sums it up.
yea, till they release max 2011, with full on AI animating.
Is your goal to get a job? Sure it is. I'd say go after the 3 most-used 3D tools: Max, Maya, and arguably XSI.
Online, you're going to find a lot more support for Max (especially if our Technical Talk forum is any indication). So far, every project I've ever worked on has been Max as well (about 5 in total) but in most cases we were able to pick our 3D package, regardless of the game. If you go to a studio to work in-house, chances are the team there will be using Package X, and won't say "You can use X or use what you're trained on, Y." It's not to say that's impossible to happen, its just unlikely.
I personally decided on Max simply because of the support I could find for it online. And now that I'm good with it, I'm looking in to branching out to try new tools which may cater to my modeling habits a little stronger.
and the universe will make sure your first job is the program you didn't pick. If you like Modo you should stick with it.
I only say this because, to me, getting a job to pay the bills > having fun modeling @ home. It just so happens that in most of our cases, the 2 are combined. The job we've got uses the same tools we use @ home.
Specialize in Max or Maya and dabble in the other.
That doesn’t take away from it being great software, but personally I wouldn’t focus on it being my #1 software solution.
This will leave you to be a very marketable person.
Please reserve the dismissive sarcasm for joke threads. And Blender
For the most part, workflow is what's important, not any individual feature or this or that special effect. None of the fancy post-processing filters will make it into games anyway and poly count is more a function of purpose. Brute-force sculpting apps can handle the polygons required for their usage, other programs less so. Along those lines you'll find three 'kinds' of interchangable programs:
Major Applications: Max, Maya, XSI... okay, blender too... Modeling, animation, UV, materials, often physics and all sorts of crazy shit they decide to cram into them. The top three are also all owned by Autodesk now. You need to know one and at least know what's what with the others.
Sculpting Applications: ZBrush and Mudbox. Lots of people have added scultping into their toolsets (Silo, Max. Maya has technically had it since before ZBrush, but it's always SUCKED) but they usually won't handle the counts or have all the special tools for working with brute-force sulture, so ZBrush and Mudbox is it. ZBrush is one of those that ignores industry standards, if you can work it great, if not that's why they made Mudbox.
Special-use programs: Standalone modeling programs, UV programs, lighting and rendering programs. These all basically aim to take one thing other programs do and do it well. Cheap and useful. Programs like Silo, Wings, Roadkill, Marmoset, etc. It's entirely possible to have a job that can be done entirely in one of these programs, but you still need knowledge of a Major Application to stitch it all together.
You're just starting out, all 3D apps will be uncomfortable.
follow me and you won't go far wrong
true! also Ive found that once youve learnt one app quite well the others seem to make more sense and you can learn them alot faster so its not so bad if you have to for example learn maya after your already pretty good at max. I started with max then went onto C4D at work and silo at home which I find more intiutive for the user but I still try to keep my max knowledge so that I can be useful in the industry.
Modo is a great modeler and from what I've been hearing great at UVs too, but most companies will prefer it if you can hit the ground running with whatever app they are using, which chances are is Max or Maya.
By all means if you find learning multiple 3d apps at the same time not too difficult, then keep on going with Modo in addition to one of the others. We could use some more Modo users around here
In the end though it's your portfolio that will get you a job, not the apps you list on your resume.
That said, asking what package was used to create a specific model or effect is extremely amateurish and shows a general lack of understanding. It doesn't matter to anyone other than the marketing depts of each package developer.
QFT no need for this argument, learn to use a spade what you dig is irrelevant to the tool /s you use
"You're just starting out, all 3D apps will be uncomfortable." - Adam
"Just use Max if you're starting out. Its the easiest to get into quickly. Lots of tutorials and plenty of companies use it." - Twilson
Yup, Yup, and it is true...
If you can't afford an Educational version of one of these two I would use a Free 3D application to start with because somthin' is better than nothin'!
After all: "doesn't matter what tool you use. A polygon is a polygon."
To begin with I don't agree at all with "a polygon is just a polygon".
Take a quad, extrude it, you get a nice straight cube right? Now imagine having to do the same, but only having controls on the individual verts, with no snapping, no move along normals, nothing. Well you still want to build the same object made of the same 5 faces, but it would take ages to get right. So no, not every program is equal when it comes to mesh editing. It was kindof all the same for lowpoly ingame stuff like a few years back (let's say, ps2 tech). But now that most of the time is spent doing high density source meshes, it's a whole different game. Many things can be done just fine in many different programs, but if the time taken to perform one task is muuuch longer in one app than in another, then it's good to consider learning the faster app instead.
Sadly, some technical artists dont know much about that side of "hardcore" modelling (and it's normal after all - modeling crazy detailled highpoly spaceships is NOT part of their job anyways) but as a consequence, they may still push for one app or another for pipeline reasons, instead of actual asset creation reasons. Honestly artists should be allowed to pick whatever they like the most (at the condition of the app not needing too much support from TA)
SO from the modelers perspective, I also disagree with 'use whatever the pipeline requires'. Xnormal can fit in any pipeline ( TAs can write the appropriate mesh exporter easily, if I understand correctly) and all it needs is raw OBJ on the highpoly side. Meaning that you can very well model highpoly meshes in Max, at a studio that use Lightwave or Maya in it's pipeline to plug in the actual game. Unreal can even get it's ingame stuff from maya, max and others thanks to actorX acting as a bridge too.
Anyways! Good luck. I'd say try out Max, it's easy. If you know Modo and Max, you would have no problem landing a job anywhere, no matter what app they use. Just don't focus too much on the technical side of things. Just know what you want to create, then figure out how to build it. Ideas first!
Post your stuff here too!
The faster and easier you can learn one software, the faster and easier you will move on to another.
Fact is, if you hear about a program more than a few times in the course of browsing the interstates at least give it a cursory glance.
lets face it most companies want max and maya skills these days.