whats better maya or 3d max studio?

hi. i was giving someone advice on 3d application creation…(3d modelling…lol)

when he asked me…whats better

3d studio max or maya?

what do you think?

and why

For my personal taste, I like XSI or Blender more than either MAX or Maya. Blender because it’s free AND reasonable powerful, and XSI because it is VERY inexpensive for what you get, especially in the character animation department.

However, having used both MAX and Maya pretty extensively in real work environments, Maya wins out for me. It has been very stable in my current company’s production environment. From a useability standpoint, I like working with Maya much more than MAX, and so far, there isn’t anything that we can’t do with it.

However, one of my duties here is “Technical Director” or “TD”, and part of Maya’s power stems from the fact that, as an application MEANT for production studios, it is customizable through scripting and plugins.

Yes, MAX supports this sort of thing as well, but I prefer Maya’s way of doing things.

But, on the flip side, I think someone in a single-user environment might have better luck with MAX, if only because Maya almost REQUIRES technological customization to harness the full power of the app.

Back to XSI, one of the reasons that I like this app is that although there is a LOT of power under the hood, you only need to go as deep as you need for a particular task. So you can spend all of your time as a pure surface-level “user” if you like, or you can dig down deep deep deep into the core, customizating pretty much any aspect of the software through scripting or plugin creation. Or many levels between, such as expressions or XML interface customization.

But the bottom line is that 3D software is a very personal thing, so your friend should try as many packages as possible, doing a lot of research before settling on one application, especially where money is involved.

But the bottom line is that 3D software is a very personal thing, so your friend should try as many packages as possible, doing a lot of research before settling on one application, especially where money is involved.

That is the best answer anyone can give to that question! I agree with that statement 100%!

I originally started with 3D in 3DSudio (for DOS). I then went to Lightwave and then back to 3DStudioMAX. Now I’m almost 100% blender guy but I still own Lightwave 8 and since it was so cheap I got the XSI Foundation to start learning XSI. But definitely try them all out.

thannks for the reply…ill go with maya…lol

Depends on what your going to be doing. If your doing game development, 3D Studio is still a defacto standard especially if your going to be using a standard game engine like Unreal, Quake, or mods for HL, Rainbow-6, etc.

We use lightwave exclusively in our shop, but our primary business is video production not 3D animation. We do need animated titles or some custom bits of animation from time to time, but it is not the mainstay of our business.

We had played with Blender over the past year until we ran into some of Blender’s quirks that were counter intutive starting with 2.36 iirc. We were investing too much time into figuring out these quirks. Ultimate was when it took better part of a day to do a simple 15 second bit in Blender because of having to edit the ipo curves. Someone else had the scene in to Lightwave and Rendered within an hour.

Most of the schools we hire from students have had at least a basic “intro to lightwave 101” class as part of their video production courses.

If your going to be doing work for a movie or video, then Maya I think has an edge. If your doing Game Developement, Max might be the better choice.

unimatrix im very grateful you answered my posts…your in depth reply is helping me come to my cinclsuion…unlike these toher posts

eveyone else answered that its personal…im not going to buy something then not like it it and be happy…

I don’t think anyone is telling you to buy something and just be happy with it.

Threads about “what app is better” are so old that most people are bored with them. Over at CGtalk, they’ve made it a sticky - but still it crops up from time to time.

Which application to use IS a personal choice. Yes, some apps are used more frequently than others in certain areas, but you’ll always find someone who is using an application for something it isn’t typically known for with excellent results.

None of the applications (at least that I’m aware) have a ‘Make a perfect render’ button. They’ll all require learning and work. They all have people who swear by them and those that swear at them. Just pop into the application specific forums at CGtalk and you’ll find threads where people are complaining about problems in each of the apps - you’ll also find people trashing other apps in favor of their preferred app. Why? Because each person just ‘clicks’ with their application a little better, and they expect that everyone else should too. It just doesn’t work that way, the same way some people drive different cars, they also use different applications.

You also don’t need to blindly buy an application to see if you like it.
This thread has links to the downloadable demos for most of the major applications. (Looks like some of the links are outdated, but you should still be able to get to the demos from the application’s main home page)

The other thing to consider is your age. If you have a specific job in mind that you want to fill NEXT WEEK - then you should learn exactly what application they use at the place you want to be hired.

If you’re still in high school (I just get that impression) then you have plenty of time. Who knows what applications will still even be left when you finally get to job time. There’s a good chance a couple will be gone (or merged) and something new will be around. So knowing the ins and outs of a particular package won’t necessarily be as important as knowing the concepts behind what you are doing (so that you can apply it to whatever package you need to use).

thank you for the helpful link…

and i thanks to your link am sticking with 3d max studio with vram renderer and blender…and darkbasic…

Everyone who posted thanks for taking time out of your day for my post!

:smiley:

This letter was posted at the Alias forum (Alias is the company behind blender). It is tittled; “Good Program, Bad Company!” (i have even heard of Hollywood Companies that have gone to great lengths to get around and sperate themselves from Alias’s bad business practices.
The point being that You have to deal with the company, not just the program.

Hello,

I just got a version of Maya for evaluation and learning. I was little impressed with the assertation that it was an Oscar winning program. Clearly the business ‘minds’ in Alias Are impressed with their products acclaim. Don’t get me wrong It Is A Great Program! However, the business modle of Alias is the worst I have ever seen and they seem to apply that modle in the worst posible way.

Somebody should make a few things clear to these people. Such as;
1- If your going to charge Thousands of dollars for a product, no matter how good
it is, you StILL, and especiialy, have to keep a clean and functional ‘store’.
2- If your going to out price every potential customer except the financialy
‘elete’ with diferent membership packages, (that are clearly designed only to
use a good product to leverage money out of the pockets of everybody),
AND make it dificult to use the product if you don’t pay for the ‘top’
membership-
Then You AT LEAST Need to give High Quality Service
to those rich enough, and less than inteligent enough,
to put up your with your Greed and ‘nose in the air’ attitude.
3- IF your going to pass out free “learning editions” as hooks to get people to
spend $2,000 to $7,000; YOU SHOULD MAKE SURE THEY WORK! And further you should
also make every efort to give these potential customers help and suport.
4- A ‘community’ of snobs usualy drives A LOT of honest and good money away.
Yes it does appear that Alias is trying, in a very sloppy way, to generate
such a ‘snob community’.

When this greed driven company finaly spends a little of the hundreds of thousands of dollars they make each year , each month most likely, on making their website actualy work, having opperatores standing by- not to gouge but- to cater to the customers every whim they might have an excuse to charge for ‘servicing their product’.
Good Program…Bad company

The fact that this program was aworded by the Acadamy is great, SO WAS I. BIG DEAL.
That is No excuse to be this incompetantly greedy and slack about the responcabilities of a business to their customers.

I have removed the Maya program from my computer. It will be my advise, based on personal experience that others wait untill this company has a drastic change of business attitude, or sells the program to an actual business in the event of their forseeable crash {greedy companies usualy peak sharply then crash at some point},
before buying it.

I went to one of their distributers to get a price list. They had a link to the Alias pages, A page that was no longer there.
I contacted Alias to report a problem with their downloading. Apparently they only have one person that monitors these E-MAILs. I was told she was on maternity leave an could not handle MY problem, to E-MAIL it to somebody else. {For the potential of $2-7,000 you better have somebody eager to answer those E-MAILS!}.
I read the problems that others were having as they wrote about them in this forum.

I have been asaulted by people who hatched a sceem to charge everybody for just being around me, much like Alias is doing with the Maya program. … . They are Not people to emulate as a business model or plan, or in any other way.

I would have sent this to an Alias support person… but I don’t care to be charged through the nose for the ‘right’ to do so and they don’t provide a reasonable and working means. Therefor, it becomes public.

These are the tip of my most learned and expert oppinions and expieriences with, about, this company.