Brand new studio: Maya LT?
polycounter lvl 4
So we are a brand new (and very small) game studio, and we are interested in getting a Maya license. However, as of now, our resources are very limited. So we were looking into Maya LT as an alternative until we get some revenue going.
Basically our development is going to be very focused on the animations, but as far as I can see in comparing Maya with Maya LT, quite some of the animation tools are not included, but to be honest, I'm not sure if we have such strong requirements for our first title.
I guess what I'm asking is whether anyone with experience could give me an idea of what pitfalls there might be, by using LT?
Basically our development is going to be very focused on the animations, but as far as I can see in comparing Maya with Maya LT, quite some of the animation tools are not included, but to be honest, I'm not sure if we have such strong requirements for our first title.
I guess what I'm asking is whether anyone with experience could give me an idea of what pitfalls there might be, by using LT?
Replies
You would have to be specific about what your game requires for info on rigging, scripting, poly limits, etc.
Just pay the $150/month sub for the real thing.
You can find a lot of great support from community (Blenderartists), a lot of great free/cheap plugins to use in commercial work which speed up your workflow, a lot of updates adding more and more features which expanding power of this software.
Sometimes I use Blender in job (where everybody use 3DS Max
@Veezen: I agree, Blender is an awesome piece of software, and it has been considered as well. I have been working with Blender the last two years, also making a transition from Max, and I was amazed at how fast I was suddenly working. I don't doubt Blender's modelling skills, but I am unsure whether it is a good enough tool for animation? I have done pretty much only keyframe animations in Blender, that were fairly simple, and with simple rigs as well. As I mentioned we do not have specific requirements yet, but I would hate to limit us based on the software.
Another thing we are also taking into consideration, is the fact that we have The Animation Workshop nearby, which is an amazing school for artists, and we would like to make ready with an industry tool like Maya, since we could be hiring from that school. And since I'm the sole artist on the project at the moment, if my responsibilities change, or I suddenly decide to bail on the whole thing(Not an expectation, more a precaution), a new artist would make an easier and faster transition into the project if they know the tools, I would assume,
If you want to see some examples of good Blender rigs you can sometimes find stuff like the Quadbot from Tears of Steel or Sintel from Durian lying around the internet.
One thing in particular that I like about animating in Blender is that it has a mostly good implementation of exporting multiple actions from one file to one .fbx that contains all the animations. I think the whole "one animation per file" thing can get a little messy if you deal with a lot of them, so having a DCC that supports multiple FBX animstacks that can model as well is pretty nice. Just remember to click F and you're golden. (Seriously, it's not that hard to do, although I do look forward to the day that it's not necessary.)
Monthly subs can be canceled at anytime when you don't need it. Just make sure whatever you end up doing isn't going to waste a lot of time fighting the software. A very simplified example being hey we can model every tree by hand in blender, which might take weeks or months to create them all. Or we can buy a subscription of speedtree and do it in a couple of days.
I've heard of some studios only using Maya or Max so everyone has the exact same software, but for a smaller company I don't see having a mixture of tools being a problem. IE one sub of Max for the guy who has years modeling in max, one for Maya for the animator that works best in Maya, and a few copies of blender for those who prefer it. The only pain you might run into is carrying anything that's being rigged/animated from one piece of software to another, but shouldn't be a problem if you think that through in your process of handing something off. (Although I heard recently from an animator who told me Max and Maya have a lot more animation compatibilities these days)
Just my two cents anyways.
@pior: That's a very good point. Thank you.
Because it doesn't support scripts and 3rd party plugins there's no auto rigging solution (like ACS). In a character heavy game, that could be a deal breaker.
-Edit- My bad, you meant Modo.