3dsmax or Maya ?

aitec · Post by **aitec** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:33 pm

What program is most worth it?

Almondo99 · Post by **Almondo99** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 11:02 pm

Matter of preference, really. Which layout you like the best etc. They're both worth it, but my vote is for Maya.

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 3:23 am

I use 3d Studio Max. Comparitively, they are identical programs with different layouts.

3ds Max is more 3rd party plug-in based, but it's used extensively within the gaming community. Maya is often chosen as a standard for many film companies, but so is 3dsMax, Lightwave, Alias, Cinema4D, etc... it all depends on the company.

Download some demos and try out various programs to see which one you like best.

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:56 am

Maya has more tweakable particle systems which are widely used in the movie industry. I personally found Max easier to get to grips with, personally, but in doing my degree and listening to a lot of lectures from people within the industry it does seem that a large majority of movie effects companies prefer working with Maya for animation and rendering.

For amateur purposes, I'd personally go with Max.

Firestorm · Post by **Firestorm** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 4:26 pm

Maya is supposed to be simpler to learn and use. Maya is definitely preferred by companies like Pixar -- for cartoons/animations. The most photorealistic outcomes seem to come from Max though. I learned 3DS and it was a pain, although it's getting a little more friendly with later versions.

AgentDick · Post by **AgentDick** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:08 am

Maya is supposed to be simpler to learn and use

I've heard the other way aroubd, and from experience, I gotta agree with what I heard. Maya is more difficult to master than Max, and I've gotten better renderings in Maya than Max. Maya is a far better animating tool than max, in my opinion.

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:12 am

Firestorm wrote:Maya is supposed to be simpler to learn and use. Maya is definitely preferred by companies like Pixar -- for cartoons/animations. The most photorealistic outcomes seem to come from Max though. I learned 3DS and it was a pain, although it's getting a little more friendly with later versions.

That's nonsense. The most realistic there is, that's Davy Jones and his crew from Pirates of the Carribbean, the CGI people in Star Wars 3 and The Matrix Revolutions, the digital cities of Batman Begins and World Trade Center - are all Maya creations and Mental Ray/Renderman renders. Max tends to be more popular for computer games because of Character Studio, and for makers of 3d anime-type things in Japan.

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 10:09 am

That's bogus and you know it! All the major animation programs have the potential to look realistic. There is no "correct" program; it is preference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mo ... of_3DS_Max

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:10 pm

Epsilon wrote:That's bogus and you know it! All the major animation programs have the potential to look realistic. There is no "correct" program; it is preference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mo ... of_3DS_Max

Of course you can get extremely realistic results with Max. I've seen some great work with it. I've also seen some great work with XSI, Cinema 4D, and even some truly astonishing work with Blender. However, before I'll be convinced that Max is as capable of animation and materials good enough to create a character as photorealistic as Davy Jones in as short a space a time as it was done, or a particle flow as pleasing as the Death Eater's appearances in Goblet of Fire, you'll have to show me.

The fact that the most realistic movies ever created are Maya, the fact that I am TAUGHT maya on my visual effects degree because of this (as well as max and XSI, but I render with Maya), and the fact that that list is slightly misleading in that I know for a fact that movies like "Goblet of Fire", "Revenge of the Sith" and "The Day After Tomorrow", and The Matrix sequels used Max mainly in the pre-vis stages means that I'm going to be sticking to my views here.

Many effects-heavy films have particle features that Max simply doesn't have the engine for. Maya particles for the win. Goblet of Fire and The Day After Tomorrow are perfect examples of this.

Maya has a workflow that makes creating materials as well as the T&L part of the process rather considerably easier. It IS the industry standard because of this, you'll find next to all major effects houses working if not exclusively mainly with it, and it's intimate integration into the rendering functions of renderers like mental ray and renderman facilitate this.

For the OP of this thread, I'd learn Maya, since you'll be starting from the ground up you may as well start with it. Since Maya and Max are both owned by the same compay now, I'm doubting that both are going to be continued indefinitely. The finer features of both with likely be eventually integrated into one program, which will likely retain the name "Maya".