I want to work for game Cinematic
I want to work for cinematic trailer for game or for movies.Which program should i use mostly, to create super realistic character, or cinematic characters, Do i need to know game engine? What about lighting and rendering, Should i do that in game engine like UDK or CryEngine or in Max/Maya like it's been seen on World of warcraft cinematic, Diablo or Starcraft, or any game cinematic. I am only interest in Modeling and texturing, and i have no problem to learn Animation too. So which program should i use, i must admit, i LOVEE Max, it is so awesome, and i don't have any single problem so far, I tried Maya too, but with Maya, i really have trouble with fatal errors, during modeling, error when Maya is starting, also maya give me errors when switching viewports, and i have new problem, importing image plane in Maya, immediately, Maya shutdowns.
Replies
max is a good base for that. you can model, unwrap, skin, animate and render with it just fine.
it is one of t he industry standard tools.
maya is nice, too, and does all the same stuff, just differently...
there are others, too, like lightwave, c4d, modo, xsi and alike, all used for various situations.
you would also need a rendering plugin. max vcomes with scanline, which is pretty old and outdated, but good for baking normals for games and mentalray.
latter is a biased render engine. there's also vray... which is a standard for architectural renderings, but also for special effects in movies. and there are some others i dont really know about, sry...
(well, theres renderman and arnold and nox and many more, some biased, some unbiased, but i dont want to list them all, bear with me
max is not so well suited for heavy particle simulations and post production.
you would need tools like realflow and after effects / nuke / alike.
i would suggest to focus on the fundamentals first, not to set ones aim too high in the first place, it gets too frustrating if you cannot achieve them easily.
Except the generalists, of course
Touche :P I was talking about big studios though with a cinematics team, not a cinematics guy
Sorry for double post. But is Max used in Game industry, more than Maya? I mean, i will learn Maya, but until then, i need to get more powerful PC, because i really have problem with Maya, and i can't to nothing, but starting empty scene.
So can with Max can be create characters for cinematic? And other question i have, what are the poly count for character in cinematic?
For cinematics, generally Maya is used more because of the very powerful MEL Scripting engine that allows studios to customize the hell out of it.
I know that Blizzard Cinematic Department uses Maya and Renderman last time I heard anything about them, but there's also Blur which uses a very heavily modified version of 3Ds Max that has been made to fit their pipeline.
As for the polycounts, they generally doesnt matter _that_ much, the character pipeline is much like how you would do a game ready model, except instead of a 12k triangle low poly model, you would be using something like 120-200k with displacement maps to push out the last details and expensive shaders like SSS and glossy reflections.
But yes, you can do anything would ever need to do by using 3Ds Max alone, Maya has a big advantage in the animation department due to its very good rigging and animation tools, however this shouldn't stop from using Max, it can be just as good if you get familiar with the tools.
but only if your portfolio is promising enough.
once you understood basic principles of 3d modeling it will be easier to change the program and there are even some tutorials out there specifically suited for people who need to switch (was it digital tutors? dont remember, sry)
also, you wouldnt need to know how to model in both, may ANd maya.
you can however model in max and animate in maya or something...
SO you want to say that, If i model something in Max, Like character or creature, i can exported it to Maya, and give that model to animators/riggers? What problems can come when importing model from Max to Maya?
as long as you just swap meshes back and forth there wont be many errors.
its getting a little more tricky when you want to do the same with animations, there is the .fbx format (3dsmax proprietary) but as always it doesnt work 100% of the times.
http://vimeo.com/33030265
Setting up a goal is nice, but when you didn't learn any, any tools yet - do your self the favor and create something first before you decide this is the right work for you. Working in the games industry, and working in cinematics can be fun and rewarding, but it can also be painful and stresfull.
If you learn Max or Maya and use that stuff you create or modify or animate in UDK or CryEngine comes down to personal choice. I've used all of them and in the end, a bad camera will always look shit and a good image composition will always look good.
Matter of fact, you'll need a strong PC no matter what engine or software you are working with. Companies won't hire or not hire you based on what software you know, as long as you know one and can prove that you are able to learn.
All good points so far but after that comment I suggest you choose one of those and get really good at it. the majority of studios have character modelers and environment modelers. Pick one, start working on cool shit, post in Polycount and improve. Rinse and repeat.
cheers!