Yeah, which one do you think is better ? I am going to be taking a course on one of them this summer and I cannot decide which one I should take. The cost of tuition is the same for both classes so money is not an issue.
that depends on which type of career you wanna pursue(if you are doing it for career).if you want to go to the industry of game development then max would be better.and if you want to become somekind of modeller or animator who wants to do movie things or something like that then you should go for maya.if i were you i always would choose maya coz i hate max(don’t know why!!) 
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that chose is easy blender is obviously the better 
If you want to work for Cyan, you should learn Max 
I know that’s what I’ll learn if I have any free time during college between my “real” subjects
If you get a chance take a look at lightwave also. It’s a really nice package for a very good price. And it’s easy to learn. Plus the capabilities are on the same level as Max’s or Maya’s - you can get an impression on newtek’s website for yourself.
Max is a lot like 3D Studio VIZ (VIZ is Max with out all of the plug-ins and is owned by AutoDesk) that lets you go into gaming or into the engineering/architectural presentation business. Maya is a nice program but you can download and learn it on your own (I learned 3D with Blender, am taking a course for 3D Studio VIZ, and downloaded Maya to learn, so I know it works) All 3D programs do the same thing with the same formulas, the terminology is slightly different but close enough to figure out, the big difference is the menus and UI. Why pay for a class to learn a program you can learn for free (Maya). Max crosses into more job opportunities because of its connection to AutoDesk.
I still prefer Blender.
tough choice…both require a whole new modeling technique to learn thats far different and more difficult than blender i think… i would choose maya…it just feels more like home to me than max…max feels too mechanical… and maya has paint effects!!! they rule!.. have u tried either program yet??
I personally prefer Softimage to Maya. I find it much more intuitive than Maya, and has more possibilities than 3DSM. But that’s for animation, of course ;D . And Maya is coming down in price now, so who knows?
Ity’s also got some bloody nice tools - try insert - primitive - head, and see the lovely head creator options that come up…DROOL
Anyway, at least give it a look.
LethalSideParting
I am fortunate enough to have a good friend of mine who is in the graphics business and he has let me use his copy of Lightwave for the last little while. The modeling aspect of it is a pain really, but I can see that it would get better as you use it more often. The texturing and rendering in Lightwave is far superior to Blender, (of course), and seems comparable to Maya and 3DS Max.
I have yet to really do anything that looks good enough to post from Lightwave, but I like what I have seen. I will probably invest in a book shortly.
BgDM
Lightwave is good. I will be switching over to that when I finish with my current project. It’s interfase most closely resembles Blender’s and is fairly easy to learn. It’s rendering system is excellent (caustics, refraction, reflection, radiosity, etc.) and so is its modeling system. It has particle physics and all that good stuff built-in.
Maya is powerful for animation, but its rendering isn’t that good. It is almost the “Industry Standard” for high-end stuff, so you might get the most benifit out of a class in it. However it is EXPENSIVE!!!
3DMax is weak in most areas.
I’ve used most of the mainstream apps out there, and I still like 3D Studio Max better than the rest. Lately most of my work has been in Blender, simply because I like having a full range of apps to work with.
You’ll find that most professionals use a combination of different apps to get the results they want. Most of the professionals I’ve talked to use Max for modeling and then import to Maya or Lightwave for animating. I know for a fact that Industrial Light and Magic uses Max for modeling and Lightwave to animate.
Gaming companies usually stick to just Max, since the actual animation is done within the game engine.
and Maya, Softimage, Renderman, a slew of proprietary tools and on and on and on and…
Max and Lightwave are not ILM’s “only” tools or “main” tools.
SatoriGFX.
As was already said, it depends on what you want to do with the skills you learn.
If you are just going to take the class to learn better 3d animation/modeling skills in general, then I would reccommend Maya (it has many more modeling and animation features than 3DS Max, and thus you will get a wider range of experience from it).
Lightwave is good. I will be switching over to that when I finish with my current project. It’s interfase most closely resembles Blender’s and is fairly easy to learn. It’s rendering system is excellent (caustics, refraction, reflection, radiosity, etc.)
I’d like to point out that Lightwave only supports single-bounce “radiosity” (or, rather, indirect diffuse light interaction… my understanding is that it doesn’t actually use radiosity to calculate it, though I could be mistaken).
Which is not to say that it’s a bad renderer (in fact, it’s a very good renderer). And I–personally–like the way that single bounce “radiosity” looks. It may not be quite physically correct, but it gives a nice look to the image, and it fills in the shadows quite nicely.
Anyway, I just wanted to make sure that the Lightwave renderer was represented acurately. 
BTW, did any of you know that Monster Inc’s modelling was done with Maya? I checked in the credits (after the second time I saw it of course!).
‘Modelling tools provided by: AliasWaveFront’
I guess that doesn’t have to be Maya, but I can’t think of any other tools made by AW which are better than Maya at modelling, so…SHRUG
Anyway, another point for Maya. Tho’ I still reckon Softimage deserves more credit than it gets.
LethalSideParting
Man, I can’t decide anymore after reading all of your comments ! I mean, I’d love to go to the gaming industry for I’ve always love videogames. But you know, I also thought making 3D film or film effect like Ice Age, Toy Story or even The Matrix or Lord of the Rings would be interesting too ! If Maya and 3DSMax are used seperately in the 2 industries, then I’d have to make my choice now ! Man, I’m so screwed…
PS: As for Blender, I tell you, I can’t work with it ! I have absolutely no idea of what to do with its interface ! I can’t make a single box out of Blender !!! LightWave is good, but the Vancouver Film School only offers 3DSMax and Maya courses this summer
Besides Blender, I’ve had the privilage of working with Soft Image XSI 1.5, Maya 4.0 Unlimited, Lightwave 6, and 3D studio Viz R2. Maya Maya Maya is the way to go! I find it the most intuitive and the PaintFX are an amazing feature (create a whole forest of 3D trees with 1 stroke). I’ve also had a lot of fun animating hair with the cloth engine combined with both fur and PaintFX.
SoftImage XSI 2.0 has a better hair generator with combing tools, but Maya will most likely have the same control in 4.5. By the way… Maya 4.5 will have integrated water simulation!
As for 3D Studio… meh. I can’t comment on it that much because I didn’t use Viz for very long.
If you want to get into a 3D animation field; Maya, Softimage, and Lightwave are the main standards. Sorry, but Max is more on the prosumer side, not production side.
Also, learning Unix is a MUST. No one uses Windows.
Max is more on the prosumer side but not the production side? What about all of those game companies that rely on Max? And as far as Unix goes, that may be true for cg houses that use apps available on Unix. But that leaves out Lightwave, Max, EI and Universe (and to a lesser degree Cinema 4D). So, obviously, someone IS using Windows (and Macs) for production work. Not everyone is going to get a job at ILM. And not all cg houses are SGI and/or Linux only. Some don’t use them at all.
SatoriGFX.
Lightwave is far better than Max or Maya.
It’s also more similar to Blender than either of the 2.
While the 2nd half is quite true, the first half is ridiculous. How can you make that “absolute” statement with a straight face? LW may be your preference (it’s the one I would take of the three if I was spending my hard earned cash) but to say it is out and out, without question, “far better” than Maya or Max is ridiculous.
Where do you guys come up with this cr*p?
SatoriGFX.
Where do you guys come up with this cr*p?
Yes, especially when we all know that Notepad beats all of these apps hands down