3ds Max vs. Maya nowadays and in the future

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Hey guys!

I’ve been using Blender for about 2,5 years now, basically from about my age of 12. 3D art catched my interest and I decided few years later I want to do it as a job. I picked a high school for 3D art.
blah blah, history aside, I’m trying to learn an industry standart software now. I was browsing through few studios. And since I want to do modeling (and I’m bad at creating characters :<), most of Environment artist positions had 3ds Max in requirements… just Max, not Maya or Modo… that kinda surprised me…

That encouraged me into finally starting learning Max, so I downloaded a student version. The first experience was horrible, and nothing is like in Blender >:C That brings me to another question… Why is interface so unfriendly? It’s the worst of all 3D applications in my opinion.

So I went through few forums again, and found out that I’m actually not the only one who doesn’t like Max’s first impressions. Some people even said that Max is kinda dying and there’s no point learning it.
I thought Maya’s mostly used for animation and Max has modeling power, but seeing those Maya updates and watching Max staying behind (imo)…

Well, guys, what do you think? Do you recommend me learning Max even tho it seems Autodesk likes Maya more? I mean, I’m aware I’ll spend sooo much time on it and it might all come for nothing.

I know you guys can’t predict the future, I’m just asking for your opinion.

btw. I personaly like Modo most for it’s modeling tools, but it seems not many studios share my opinion :smiley:

Thanks for your time and answers!

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First lesson: new skills are never wasted. Even if you don’t use them financially you are still enriched by them… and it’s easier to adapt later on. I do understand the issue in wasting time on stuff you won’t need though. Up to you.

The GUI:
As I know Max, its interface has not changed basically since its creation. This is to ensure that any old users don’t have to adapt their workflow transitioning to a new version. Blender went through a user uproar when its interface changed from 2.49 to 2.5. I love the new interface, but the older users had about as much difficulty learning it as you and I did - if not more.

Also consider that Max is, nowdays at least, strongly sought after in architectural visualisations. Maya is more focused on animation, as you said, but also VFX for film. Engineers are rather rigid people (please, read methodical and organised) and like a type of order you will probably not find in Maya. Personally, I begun 3D by trying out Maya and quit after about two hours because I could not stand the interface. I guess it depends on taste, you’ll learn any interface if you need to.

Max might be losing on strength. I really don’t know, but I don’t think Maya can take its place as an architectural and semi-engineering tool.

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It seems like just two years ago I was using an Autodesk Autocad product that was not Autocad. Did they roll it into 3dMax? I can’t even remember its name now. (Edit: Inventor) My introduction to 3d software was as an insurance adjuster of all things. Xactimate and Simsol appear to still be the industry standards for THAT.

Point being, there’s a ton of different interfaces out there.

There is a sense in which Blender has the capacity to fit a lot of different applications if the API folks ever get interested in that. One of the eternal issues with open source is investors and banks do not much like investing in something that is not more or less guaranteed a return. Therefore, cutting edge development happens under the auspices of closed source.

If someone got really good and pissed off about that, and decided to fund open source research, Blender could have a nice API and a scrum of developers making tools to fit every need. You could even have settings to go back to whatever Blender looked like pre-2.5 if you really, really needed that.

I think Kogomat is right about skills development though. Learning new interfaces is going to end up being part of the landscape for your career. You might as well cut your chops on current industry standards and just realize the standards are going to change, but the fundamentals of design and draftsmanship will not.

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First impressions are pretty irrelevant. You have to take a week or two of constant working with the new software to get acustomed to it in order to be able to determin if it suits you or not. First impressions allways favor the program that is most similar to the one you´ve allready used, in this case, Blender.

If you are unsure which industry in which part of the world you want to focus on it is probably irrelevant if you learn Max, Maya, Cinema or something else like Houdini.

If you know where and which industry you are interested in then you might want to research what is used there. If you´re looking at a good paying job in the German car industry for example learn Maya. If you´re interested in Motion Graphics go with Cinema. And if you´re interested in ArchViz go with Max. Gaming… well, don´t go into gaming. It´s tedious work with low pay. :wink:

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First lesson: new skills are never wasted. Even if you don’t use them financially you are still enriched by them… and it’s easier to adapt later on. I do understand the issue in wasting time on stuff you won’t need though. Up to you.

The GUI:
As I know Max, its interface has not changed basically since its creation. This is to ensure that any old users don’t have to adapt their workflow transitioning to a new version. Blender went through a user uproar when its interface changed from 2.49 to 2.5. I love the new interface, but the older users had about as much difficulty learning it as you and I did - if not more.

Also consider that Max is, nowdays at least, strongly sought after in architectural visualisations. Maya is more focused on animation, as you said, but also VFX for film. Engineers are rather rigid people (please, read methodical and organised) and like a type of order you will probably not find in Maya. Personally, I begun 3D by trying out Maya and quit after about two hours because I could not stand the interface. I guess it depends on taste, you’ll learn any interface if you need to.

Max might be losing on strength. I really don’t know, but I don’t think Maya can take its place as an architectural and semi-engineering tool.

hmm, thanks for the answer :slight_smile:

I also noticed it is more used by studios for creating game environments… but I agree on that engineering with Max you mentioned

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what do you think about VFX in movies? I heard Modo rocks there.

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Interface on max, after many years, still give me this impression of so old fashioned, this said, well like with Blender, when you have learn the shortkey, hotkey, its way more easy. Its funny that i really think that right now, Blender have a better interface, gui, than Max.

Max is still surely the most used and globally used software for games and animation anyway. But it is specialized as Autodesk dont want to put to much features of let say Maya, Autocad, BIM, Inventor, 360 in other softs.

Basically, compared to Blender, it tend to something else than the reputation: every school for 3D, animation VFX etc use Max, Maya…

Maya, effectively is used on 3 main things, animation, VFX and simulation so it is even used on professional things as it work really well with other softwares from Autodesk.

ABout engineering ( not gaming ), honestily, there’s Autocad ( and all his suite ); Revit, inventor, Solidworks, Catia, etc etc.

Then what you learn, is never lost, imagine tomorrow you can take a job, you could still tell them, i use Blender, Modo, Max, Maya etc… a

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I used max for 18 years, maya on/off for about a decade. Currently working in max/maya based game studio on some pretty big titles. I am single artist using Blender and Houdini. Been with Blender around 1.5 years but even so it’s just incomparably more efficient especially if you charge your pipeline with some python.
I do not mean to diss anything here but If i could give sincere advice then software like zb, blender, modo, houdini, 3dcoat etc will continue to innovate and improve the pipeline while it’s pretty much same old with max, maya as they are pushed more and more into the scene assembly role. In short - yes, you should know the basics of both max and maya(more so than max). If you only know blender and knock on studios door, you may get a grin of ignorance shutting that door. Do spend some time getting comfortable with these as you will have to work with others. In real production though you will be allowed to apply whatever tool enables you to achieve highest quality and fastest production rate(if it does not disrupt the pipeline). Blender does just that and costs nothing for you nor the studio. Modo also excels with gamedev and will continue to grow.

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Since you are from the Czech Republic you should probably look first at the czech cg companies - there are only few of them:
http://www.upp.cz/ - they obviously use Maya
http://www.warhorsestudios.cz/ - probably both 3ds and maya
http://www.bistudio.com/ - 3ds (and modo and maya)
IMHO it is best to know both maya and 3ds max and you will be fine.

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No idea. I earn my money with Productviz, Automobile, Archviz and similar things for commercials.
VFX in movies is where Houdini stands out AFAIK but you´d better ask someone else.

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True that, I’m hyped to see the progress of Modo.
Thanks for the answer btw., very helpful.

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I already did this kind of research of these local studios. :slight_smile:
Thanks for the answer tho.

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One was abandoned by autodesk and the other is still in active development

pick one.

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As Lumpengnom wrote, learning a new app is never waste of your time, also it is meaningless to judge an app by your first expressions.

Max is pretty solid, decent 3d app what technically could be used for anything without limits (not like other apps). It does not mean that there are no other apps for specific tasks to be more efficient as a user. If you wanna make archviz, Max is your number one choice, C4D for motion graphics, etc. Also, if you wanna be employed, I heavily suggest to learn Vray as the most widespread renderer.

Related to Max I also suggest to learn how to customize GUI/shortcuts. In some way it is more flexible than Blender GUI (and in some way it is not).

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Yea, I’ll have to customize those shortcuts for sure…
Thanks for the reply

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Welcome. I also suggest to use dual monitor setup for Max as it more or less designed for that and increases efficiency a lot.

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Yes. I have noticed it is lots more screen space consuming that Blender, lol.

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Not a problem with dual screens:)
I also suggest to change the modifier set appearance to button instead of list, making a button set from the most used modifiers.

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Although I don’t understand her at all I think I know what’s going on :smiley: Thanks for the tips :slight_smile:

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