Maya or 3ds max

#41 So if you were going to vote on a modelling program, one of these:

1. 3DS Max

2. Alias Maya

3. LightWave 3D


what would you guys say is the best?

#42 Votes like this kinda suck because they are based on personal preference for what you work with and are not a fair assessment of which tool will work best for you based on your experiance, situation and resources that you have.

I personally use 3DS Max and swear by it, but really any of the 3D applications are more than capable of making decent game art (since it is the end user driving the application that makes great art and not the tool). The only thing the tool will do is make you more productive and allow you to complete your tasks in a better time.

Logan

#43 I know that people are going to be biased, I just meant overall what program seems to be the best. I'm new to modelling and before I buy a program I'd like to know what every body else personally thinks is the best.

#44 Nathan,
What really matters is what YOU think is the best. You can download demo versions of every 3d program mentioned above, (except for Lightwave), and see for yourself. Do that, its fun!

#45 Only problem is that I have dial up internet and the files are probebly pretty big.
Also as I said before I'm new to modelling, so I can't really judge what's best.

#46 Nathan,
If you use a download manager program like Download Accellerator Plus, downloading the files should be painless.

If you're really new to modelling, you can get experience by working with free or inexpensive modelling and texturing programs (i.e. Milkshape, Blender, Wings). After a while, when have a certain degree of skill and feel like you need more features, you'd be more able to decide which is best for you.

#47 I use both daily here at the studio.

Neither is better. There are strengths and weaknesses to both.

Max has a cleaner interface and workflow. Mayas menus seem to be randomly
thrown in where ever there was a space.
Maya is normally customized a great deal. All of the movie houses that use Maya
generally only use it as a base with a custom interface and tools written by their
code/script guys.

And after you pay for all of the Maya features, it IS more expensive than Max. Trust me :)

Max doesnt handle a huge amount of data on screen at once as well as Maya does.
The IK and character animation tools in Maya are more robust than Maxs, in some areas.
(Unless you know character studio really well..)

As far as game content creation goes, Max is the winner hands down IMO. The polygon modelling
tools in Max are much better than Mayas. And the plugins available for game content are more widely
available for Max.

Plus Autodesk (Max people) just bought Alias (Maya people). There will be some changes in the next five years
for sure.


You will get the same result with either package. Its just a tool... Do you buy the red hammer or the blue hammer?


I will say that most of my work for other studios is requested to be done in Max.

#48 The nice thing about the Modo interface is that you can make it look like any 3D app to fit your workflow. I use it in LW mode and use it for quick SubD modeling. The interface is more than skinning. It's about creating functionality. More applications, regardless of the application type, should have such a usable and modifyable interface.

#49 I one of those who prefer Maya over Max, but I agree with what the others are saying. You need to determine which one you like better by testing the various trial versions available.

#50 I can't really add that much either. I can just agree with what's already been said; Get something cheap for now and get comfortable with the actual creating art thing. No point in spending thousands of dollars on something you later decide you don't want to do.

Eventually the tool you use won't really matter _that_ much anyway. Sure, you will have something you prefer but all the major tools are really similar enough (and besides, they are just that; TOOLS) that you can move reasonably seamlessly between them. I, like Logan, use max but if a job required me to move to XSI or Maya or whatever it really wouldn't be a problem.

#51

Quote:How hard is it to export something from Zbrush to torque... can it be done using intermediate programs.. like export to max or blender(hopefully) then export to dts?

Well, Zbrush doesn't exactly animate, so they've provided decent export options to get your mesh into another package for animation, etc.

You can export your meshes, UV mapped, Normal mapped, and even displacement mapped into *.obj format and from there import into any 3D app of your liking.

Try the demo. It's mind blowing. Honestly. =)

#52 Yeah i've seen their demo videos... its crazy how well and how fast they can do something with that software. And the way that you model in that program turns it into more of an art then learned techniques(the latter my opinion of most 3d aps).

Plus Zbrush looks awsome for making characters for TSE... like you said... you can take a low poly mesh... detail the hell out of it .. than export the normal map and apply it to the low poly mesh in game... and BAMMMMM! You got your self some next gen graphics.

If the demo catches my attention as much as the hype around it.... I might just start saving.

The reason I was asking about blender was because ive learned most of what I know about modeling in blender... and from what I hear using blender is a lot different than others... and now im so used to blender it would be difficult to get up to speed with the others.

PLUS ITS FREE :)

#53 Wow... modo does look awesome. Especially the new version coming out.

-Unk