From blender to MAX or MAYA??

hathol

hey guys, this is my first post, I guess considering the first actual post i made doesnt exist for some reason..

anyways... i've been a lurker for quite a while and figured i should finally make an account and become a real member of the community.

As a student, learning about modeling, uv's, texturing, etc, using blender was great. It provided a free entry point into the world of professional-ish game art, one that i could use to practice the fundamental skills that are transferable between packages. I have used it recently with pretty good results for several iOS related projects using the unity game engine. Now, however i am trying to get into a more professional and less independent (if you catch what i mean) role in the industry. Also, as a last note i'd say that i'm mostly doing low poly work right now, and as much as i'd like to beef up my skills with high poly i dont think i have the time right now.

So my question to you all is coming from a blender background, between MAX and MAYA, which do you think will be an easier transition? what is used as a more industry standard these days for low poly work? what really are the key differences?

thanks for the responce, and for all you trollers i've scoured the internet for information regarding this topic. i'd just like to get some insider opinions as to what the fine people here at polycount think

Mr.Mint

I am far away from being considered as a professional so I just reiterate what I have read and what seems to me the most logical conclusion.

In the end both apps don't distinguish very much from their abilities especially in the lowpoly-area. One app has some tools that may be superior to the other one while the other app has a different field considered superior.

In the end it comes down to the personal preferences of the artist which application he feels most ccomfortable with.

hathol

Mr.Mint wrote: »

I am far away from being considered as a professional so I just reiterate what I have read and what seems to me the most logical conclusion.

In the end both apps don't distinguish very much from their abilities especially in the lowpoly-area. One app has some tools that may be superior to the other one while the other app has a different field considered superior.

In the end it comes down to the personal preferences of the artist which application he feels most ccomfortable with.

Yea this is what I've heard / read. It just seems annoying that their is no clear look at how their tools differ. I want to make a decision without having to download both and extensively try them out.

passerby

just try both long enough to understand the workflows for each. for every user that swears by max there will be one that does the same by maya.

also you dont need to base your workflow around a 1 application too, figure out what you like about different apps and use them for that.

personally i use modo or silo for modeling, and maya for assembling my scene, animation, and sometimes uv's, than xnormal for baking.

find that works for me but when someone of my friends see my workflow there is usually a big wtf.

everyone works differntly and thinks and approaches things differently, which would be why the same company makes multiple differnt different 3d packages.

Toast

hathol wrote: »

I want to make a decision without having to download both and extensively try them out.

I don't think this will work. The only way to really find out is use them both. Some people swear by Max, others Maya - it's really up to the user. Both are good.

Otherwise if you don't want to test them out yourself, don't worry about it and just choose the cheapest package.

Edit: Just realised I probably sound like a Parrot - sorry Passrby.

Adam L. Gray

As mentioned, comes down to personal preference.

IMO though, I see Maya more as a organic/freeformish kind of modeling app, and great for rigging and animation. While Max to me seems more like a structural and precise app.

Still, both can be used to create modular assets with the same precision and vice versa. And there's also a bunch of plugins and scripts around to make one more like the other and generally improve/personalize the apps. But my personal preference is still organic/animation = Maya, architecture/env/precise = Max.

I think that max started to pick up some more maya'ish features and lean in a bit more towards it as autodesk adopted Maya too. And most likely the other way around, so they're prolly pretty similar by now.

Oh, and unless they fixed it, then Maya's UV tools are horrible. Replace those, immedietly, with something, whatever really... just.. anything that's not the default

Ace-Angel

Max is the modeling juggernaut with it's plethora of tools. The extra free scripts also help.

Maya, from what I gathered, is the best lower-tier solution for animation (the honor goes to MotionBuilder), so if you're an artist who wants a package for animation, it seems like Maya is like it.

Visioneer

Personally, I'm a MAX fiend, I love the program and I've been using it since version 2.5, but recently I've been wanting to work with Maya. I'm not sure how you had things set-up in Blender, but if you went with the emulated Maya set up, Maya actually might be a bit "easier" to transition into, from a UI standpoint. However, the best way to know is to really download the programs and try them out yourself.

The 30 day demo provides more than enough time to become accustomed to the software, and find out things that you like and dislike about the respective programs. You may want to consider looking into ZBrush as well, if you haven't done so already. Many workflows are moving to a "primarily ZBrush" set up, unless you main concern is more over animation than modeling.

Find what works for you by trial and error. When something clicks, you'll know it.

hathol

thanks for the responses everyone, i know that i'll really have to try them out before i make a decision, but i'd rather atleast get a handle on the main differences. I think that i'm looking for primarily modeling and UV tools, which seemingly MAX has a better handle on.

also, i have dabbled with zbrush and i know that its becoming a popular workflow for using normal maps to get from high poly to low. which package do you guys think has better integration for trying that out? i've done it with blender before, but the tools were kind of annoying to get around. i know a lot of this is based off preference so please tell me, what is your preference?
i think i'm going to download max today, i've registered myself as a hobbyest on the autodesk website and so long as i'm not doing anything commercial i can get whatever software for free! woo.



edit: oh wow i just realized/found out that i can't even run max on my mac.. unless its in parallels.... anyone have any experience doing this? seems completely absurd that they couldn't workout a mac version

Toast

Maya uses OpenGL for it's viewport so it's compatible across Linux, Windows and Macs but from what I recall Max still uses DirectX which we all know is a Microsoft product. So that's pretty much the main reason I recall.

maze

I know its not one of your two options, but if you really want to use a nice modeling tool go with xsi. SI modeling tools/workflow are a lot smoother than max. But on the other side max has a lot of third party plugins/scripts that are helpful. I cant speak of maya as I havent "really" used it.

PolyHertz

If you're using a Mac your options are more limited. Basically just Maya, Modo, and Blender. There are a few others but nothing anyone actually uses.

Jedah

I regularly use Blender, Max, and Maya. Between the two I'd say Maya is the most similar to blender. Radial menu is close to the Blender spacebar popups. Like blender, Maya also has a very customizable spaceship-like interface. Maya also does edge based smoothing ( Soft/Hard edges ) like blenders Sharp/Clear edges, while max does face-based smoothing groups which may seem more alien to a blender user.

Learn all 3 IMO.

mwilson

I'm in a similar situation. After spending a few years poking at 3D and not having much luck, I went back to blender after the 2.5 release (It cannot be over stated how much of an improvement 2.5 is over 2.4) and managed to make a dent in things.

I can't shake the feeling that despite the success I've had using blender, switching to 3DS or Maya would be in my best interest. However, so far every time I've tried to give them a shot I've been pushed back to blender. Blender's heavy use of hot keys just seems so much more intuitive to me

Let us know what your findings are. I'm interested to know what you decide to use in the end.

Vysuki

mwilson, couldn't you just set max and mayas hot keys to be the same as blender to help you transistion? a little setup time to get into a commercial app like max might be worth the time.

dpaynter26

yeah i would definitely try them both, you can get both of them for free with a .edu email free for 3 years as well as mudbox and xsi and all the autodesk goodies, just get in there, follow the basic tutorials that show up on the popup menu when you open the program and then kinda decide which one feels better

mwilson

Vysuki: I'll admit I haven't invested a ton of time into trying, but I don't think you could really emulate the sheer amount of hotkeys involved in blender's work flow.

I mean just the idea of actually using the mouse to move around the gizmo in 3ds makes me shudder

dpaynter26

wat