Which software should i be learning for hard surface modeling in games?
polycounter lvl 5
I'm learning to be a character artist for games and wanted to know what the industry standard is because i see some using zbrush and some using maya or 3ds max? thanks.
Replies
Either of the autodesk programs will do. Seems like dedicated hard surface people tend to lean towards 3dsmax, but that's just the impression I get from these forums alone. Maya has better tools for rigging and animation.
Look up Michael Pavlovich on youtube to get up to speed with zbrush. You can do hard surface in there as well, but to me, the hard surface workflow seems to require an alien brain or something. Seems powerful, but not intuitive at all to me.
Max is better but learn maya just in case.
but with max or maya you will be save.
I'd bet money that it won't. And staking your career on the direction you hope things will go in the future is a terrible idea regardless.
I feel that this point needs reinforcing.
Most studios - especially bigger ones - will not be integrating blender into their official pipeline because its open source and unsupported.
Use of non standard applications in a studio comes with a number of problems (other team members not being able to edit your files for a start) so is usually discouraged.
Don't y'all know by now that they can do all the same stuff, just in different ways? Any meaningful difference was erased long ago. The main difference is just the method of working, and once you know how to be efficient, either software can do anything you could need it to. And this doesn't just apply to Max and Maya, but to almost any of the widespread modelling software.
In the mid-to-late 2000s, sure, Max was a better modelling software. But it's time to move on from that belief.
We are a maya based studio but in some cases we have clients with an max pipeline. That means we have to bring over the data at a certain point and do the finishing tasks in max. For example normalmap baking cause maya does have a diffrent tangent space. We have to make sure we deliver clean smoothing groups. We have to make sure all material IDs are set. All dummy objects are in the scene. And there is a way of no return to maya. All feedback has to be done in max. In some cases we dont use maya at all cause its faster to work from the beginning in max.
If you model just one isolated asset do what ever you want. But as soon as you have to work in a team make sure you use the tool all other in the pipe are using. Or have a good plan what you are doing to not break the pipeline.
I worked in a lot of diffent pipelines and its no fun in the beginning to work with a new modeling software. But after a while its standard to work in all kind of tools.
....and conversely on the periphery, just evaluate what's available out of the box, no biggie! Because nowadays most commercial packages are released with various end user licencing options which comes in handy especially when shopping around searching for 'THE' right fit prior too committing towards a particular suite or more succinctly shelling out doh.
(Oh! BTW a scenario Blender will generally win hands down :-) )
I've practiced making the same model in multiple software over and over until I could seamlessly move through each step needed without error or inefficient choices in each software, and timed myself doing it.
Maya was by far the slowest.
This was back in, I think, 2016.
For anyone wondering, Modo and Blender were neck-and-neck as the fastest. Blender edged out Modo by a bit, but knowing what I do about them both I'm certain Blender would have fallen well behind on a more complex model, due to the weird hacks needed to get around certain tasks.
I didn't test Max because I had no license for it and couldn't afford it anyway, thus making it not an option for me. I've used it before, but my experience is limited.
But I've been given to understand that it's similar enough to Modo, and I can't understate just how slow Maya was, despite my being very familiar with the software. It literally took around twice as long as the others to finish, even with aggressive use of marking menus.
And especially because you will undoubtedly pick a favorite subconsciously anyway, no matter how objective you think the test is.
Now, if you got a maya modelling expert, a max modelling expert, a modo modelling expert, and a blender modelling expert together, and did the test, it could be a little more informative, but even then, people have different flows, different styles, different strengths, and you'd need to do much more than one test to arrive at any meaningful conclusions.
It's like seeing what kind of baseball bat is better. You'd have to do tons of tests, with different batters, different balls, and hundreds of hits, to prove anything.
If I had to bet, software would come up pretty damn even, with modo at the top only by a bit.
So for example I want to create a picture frame. In max I create a rectangle spline, create a profile shape and sweep it over the rectangle. Quick, simple mesh and UV's. At any point I can edit the splines in either and the final mesh object updates.
Or using a spline and the lathe modifier. Again I'm controlling a complex shape with a lot of poly with just a few knots in a spline.
Does blender have anything like those tools?
Are they all powerful? Yes.
Are they all standard? No, I'd say Autodesk Maya or Max are going to be the front runners there, due to being supported in the mainstream, entitlement to support for their products as well as plain old history. Companies have put money into R&D on those software for decades.
Are they all great? Yea! I'd say so each one is like a different gem in its own right.
Which one to learn first? I believe you've got enough info to kind of gauge that now and make your choice.
Edit: @Mark Dygert Blender does have those. Worth a look see if you get the time.
Thanks for the links!
I have been using max and maya while being a student because its a standard but once I got hired, I had to switch to modo as my primary modeling app and it feels a lot faster compared to max. If one day I decide to learn a new modeling app then it probably will be a blender.
Simply put - you don't get to choose, the studio does and since they're almost all autodesk, you're best off learning those.
I mean there is no need of going with just maya for modellers and animators setup. Studio can decide to go with modo and maya combination instead. So every modeller will be using modo and maya for animators only. This way it is a lot cheaper especially if your studio doesnt have equal amount of animators and modellers. Usually there are a lot more modellers than animators. Also modo is very powerful and fast for modeling. If I am sick then another modeller can alter my files with his modo licence. Also you can edit fbx files to some extent.
but yeah proabaly its safer to learn max or maya for now but be prepared to learn new soft because some studios may ask you to like in my case.