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Need advice on which path to choose - max or maya

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Message 1 of 9
vman2012
859 Views, 8 Replies

Need advice on which path to choose - max or maya

Ok, first off - I m very new with 3DSMax, having only spent a few months (although pretty intense) with it. I m really liking the modelling tools in there and was planning to purchase it some time next year (using student edition currently). But now I am seeing all this chatter about max 2015 and how maya is the way to go (and from a  lot of folks seems like). I m mainly interested in Max for modelling, skinning and rigging and specifically game character/prop modelling. How do you guys feel Maya is in comparison, in regards to those features. Does Maya have things like skin wrap (and as easy to use as it is in 3DS), modifier stack and such ? Or, maybe even better question - in general should I drop my 3DSMax learning and switch to Maya ? And will what I learned so far in 3DS be applicable to maya at all ? (I would assume that Maya would have more or less the same polygon modelling stuff, no  ? ) 

8 REPLIES 8
Message 2 of 9
lightcube
in reply to: vman2012

Stick with Max. Autodesk is obviously trying to push people over to Maya. But just because they have some strategists that really want to push us that way, it doesn't mean that we, the consumer, need to fall for that. AD is going in reverse. Instead of giving us, the consumer, what we want, they are trying to "condition" us to do what they want.

 

Stick with Max. Send a strong message. Max can be used for every single 3D project you'll ever come across. FILM, VFX, GAMES, ARCH-VIS, MOTION GRAPHICS. All excel behind 3ds Max.

 

In the end, AD will either get the message--that Max is king of the hill and needs to stay there... or it will find that it has literally shot the golden goose. If AD's business strategy doesn't change soon, it will continue to foster the kind of ill-trust and bad will from consumers that is beyond repair. I strongly urge you to pick Max, share your excitement for Max, and also strongly warn AD that you won't drop a penny on any Max competitor inside AD. In other words, if AD wants to keep sharing the benefits of your money, they need to give you what you want--not what they want to force you into.

 

Just because you see AD posting Maya ads everywhere doesn't mean it is any better for you. Many of those Maya promos were built, in part, in 3ds Max. Just go ask Paul Neale.



Shawn Olson

Developer of Wall Worm
3ds Max plugins and Scripts

3ds Max 4/Gmax - 3ds Max 2020
Mudbox 2009-2019

Windows 10 x64
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Message 3 of 9
BenBisares
in reply to: vman2012

I would say that if you know where or what industry you want to work for find out what they use and learn that. From my experience I can say in general:

 

    -Architecture/Visualization industry uses 3ds Max

    -Game industry uses 3ds Max and Maya. Depends on the company. The asset creators tend to use Max while the cinematics gang use Maya

    -Movie industry uses Maya

 

In general the viz crowd likes Max for the built in AEC assets, photometric lighting, lighting analysis tools, and AEC materials. The movie crowd like Maya for the general "openess" of the program in terms of scripting and since it's node based it much easier to make things work in ways not built in by connecting nodes in various ways. Think of it like building with lego. You can connect the blocks in any way you like. It may not make sense or work sometimes but it can be the fastest way to build things.

 

In the end it's not necessarily the program you use it's what you do with it. If your portfolio is amazing then the company will not care what you used to make it. I personally like both Max and Maya and both have their merrits.

 

Also at the risk of stepping into a minefield again, 3ds Max is not going 6 feet under any time soon. For example the viz industry will not adapt well to Maya simply because of the work needed to get the functionality that they have built into Max (Example IES lights).



Ben Bisares
Message 4 of 9
mbastudios
in reply to: BenBisares

Dear Ben,

 

and THAT is exactly the wrong message, or better the message Autodesk wants to send!

 

    -Architecture/Visualization industry uses 3ds Max

    -Game industry uses 3ds Max and Maya. Depends on the company. The asset creators tend to use Max while the cinematics gang use Maya

    -Movie industry uses Maya

 

When I look at all the movies that uses  MAX along with TP, FumeFX, Krakatoa etc for their FX I cant not agree on your recommendation.

It looks to me MAX has a VERY strong postion there and I really dont understand why Autodesk is so "afraid" of MAX being strong in that field....

 

cheers,

Markus

Message 5 of 9
BenBisares
in reply to: mbastudios

What I said was based on my personal experience. It's not a reccomendation or my opinion on what I think the industry should follow.

 

For sure Max is more than strong enough to make any of the top 3d movies out there. I'm a Max fan myself and I defend it when I have these Max vs. Maya talks with my friends in Eidos, Ubisoft, and a couple of other places. I would love to see more Max visibiliy out there.

 

Vman2012 asked for the opinions of the community and I'm trying to give him what I hope is an unbiased opinion because I would think it's irresponsible to do otherwise.

 

I just want to say something to the people reading this thread. Markus, I totally know the way you feel and I actually like to hear the feelings of the people out there and if I can try to help them.

 

That being said, let's not try to make every thread out there a Max vs. Maya flame war since it only serves to turn those looking for help away from our group.



Ben Bisares
Message 6 of 9
mbastudios
in reply to: BenBisares

HI Ben,

 

I appriciate your posting helping others and I dont want to start a flame war. Not at all,... to be honest I cant hear this crying anymore all over the place that max need that because maya got that ... it´s kindergarden.

 

Neverthless, I found I HAD to also post, in helping the thread starter finding the right software, because this statement from an AD Product support that Maya is the way to go for Movies, I can not sign 😉

 

So, no offense Ben 😉

 

 

Message 7 of 9
spacefrog_
in reply to: vman2012


@vman2012 wrote:

 Does Maya have things like skin wrap (and as easy to use as it is in 3DS), modifier stack and such ? Or, maybe even better question - in general should I drop my 3DSMax learning and switch to Maya ?


Just my opinion:

 

Maya 2015 i think got Skin wrap as new feature, but i'm sure they had a similar technique already.

 

Regarding the modifier stack: a clear NO

You will not get the flexible and easy to use and understandable modifier stack over there in Maya. True, you get the object history, but that is far more restrictive, complex and not at all that easy to use like the modifier stack in Max.

Maya people are constantly deleting their history and are encouraged to do so, because things tend to break so often or do not work from the beginning if your object history is not clean

 Funny thing is, that this  is one of the topics that gathers much criticism from the recently alienated Softimage userbase

( Softimage 2015 will be the last and final release ever, was announced just recently )

Softimage had a similar ( even more advanced ) operation mode like the modifier stack in Max...

And hell: how they ( Softimage guys) hate Maya with passion and the Autodesk efforts to win them over to Maya

 

In my opinion:

Maya is a powerhouse of a package (as Max is ), and it's the ultimate flexible tool, but at the same time it's an absolut chaotic patchwork of various technologies stitched together. It might do that ( the stitching ) a bit better than Max, because it's more a framework than an integrated package. Maya users are used to that and they constantly juggle arround with mel-script applied here, mel snippet applied there to fill all the holes that are left in the whole tool and not integrated out of the box...

 

Sure: when your sole focus is character animation or you want to get your foot into film, there's no way arround Maya. In the meantime, Max is the last true generalist ( in the most positive way), artist oriented one package solution still there under Autodesk's roof. Softimage was the other one, but they killed it ...

Message 8 of 9
BenBisares
in reply to: mbastudios


Neverthless, I found I HAD to also post, in helping the thread starter finding the right software, because this statement from an AD Product support that Maya is the way to go for Movies, I can not sign 😉

 

So, no offense Ben 😉

 

 


No offense taken. You love Max and that's cool, I can respect that. I also know that I'm not omniscient and it would be naive of me to think that my opinion is the word of God and everyone else that thinks differently doesn't know what they're talking about. You're allowed to disagree with me simply because I sometimes I may be wrong 😉



Ben Bisares
Message 9 of 9
AdrianWise8371
in reply to: vman2012

my two cents, download a trial. try and do the same project in both. i'm a max guy always have been, always will be.  i cant get my head to unlearn how max does it and how maya wants me to do it but ive been using 3d studio since its dos days and my brain just likes the way max does stuff.  i know a few guys that use both activley because ots what clients want and they each have their own preffered platform.

 

these are highly experienced guys that know their onions. which if you think about it means max and maya may differ in features but are equally capable, yes maya gets some tools but max get others, if you read the maya forums you'll fond maya is just getting tools that max has had for a while, conversly you'll find maya has some features max hasnt got, yet.

 

also try looking at the autodesk youtube channel you'll see different customers use them for a variety of applications, and them togther.

 

A

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