3dsmax vs. Maya

[XpYtZ]

Maya or 3Ds: the age old question.
I use Maya exclusivly(sp) for high-poly photorealistic renderings since Mental Ray (a rendering plugin) does a great job with it.  I also like the Maya user interface better then MAX\'s.  It\'s just more built for how I think.
If your going to be doing lots of stuff for Planeshift you should get MAX though since Cal3D actually has a lot of documentation for outputting to it...and an exporter. While I have yet to find any support for exporting animation from Maya into that. [if someone else does know info --> point me to it, please!]

Lightwave is also a good choice since it outputs \'.obj\' files nativley and costs way less in its full version then either of these other programs.  Just in case you had not heard. (As I throw another fish on the fire.)

Blender is a powerful tool and actually great since it is free and fully supported for this project.  My only reason for never getting proficient with it is that its cross-intuitive for me (meaning that it works the opposite of how I do )
But you should use that and save your money if you are going to be working on PS with your \"skillz playa\'.\"

[unofficial] I\'ve heard there is a $45 (USD) version of Maya for people that are taking it in school.  I\'m not sure how much of the functionality has been Nerfed but if you are trying to get into Photorealistics and Animation it might be worth the cash.

PS:  I\'m back...and I\'m smokin\' hot.

[ArcaneFalcon]

I had to use Lightwave all last semester, and I would definitely steer away from it for game stuff.  It\'s great for high poly characters, but for game stuff it really isn\'t that great.  The modeling workflow in max and maya, even blender, is much better suited to low poly game models than lightwave is.  Not to mention, LW has virtually no support anywhere in the gaming community.  It\'s really suited to smaller cg companies than it is games or large production houses.

:emerald:

[Netty]

Just in addition to what\'s been said - MAX can easily be used for high poly photorealistic renders as well. In fact, if you go to that CG Choice 3D Gallery link I posted earlier, there are more photorealistic character renders done with MAX than Maya. But both can be used successfully for that sort of thing.

For gaming industry, whether you\'re making high poly models for 3D cinematics or low poly for in-game stuff, you\'ll probably want MAX. Although everything else is used as well, depending on a gaming company.

For example, look at Blizzard job application for different positions, it\'s all - MAX, MAX, MAX, and occassionally Maya. If you look at their \"legendary 3D cinematics\" position, they want you to know MAX.

And if you look at stuff like \"Prince of Persia\", they used both, Softimage|XSI and MAX.

Guys that made \"The Lord of the Rings\" computer effects, including Gollum, used Maya. However, after the movie was done, their studio made a switch to Softimage|XSI. Some of them were against it, others were for it. Although the move had probably more to do with a closer relationship between both of the companies. That means they get more discounts and better support.

Guys who worked on \"Babylon 5\" show used Lightwave, same with \"Star Trek: Enterprise\" show.

\"Farscape\" - 3D Studio Max.

And so on...

In the end, either of those programs would work well.

[Arangol]

I heard that Lord Of The Rings Online is using maya too and their screenshots look very good. (http://lotro.turbine.com/index.php?page_id=66)

Same with Pirates Of The Burning Sea (screenshots http://www.burningsea.com/gallery.php?gal_section=0)

[Necromagvs]

Even when 3d max is a superb tool, it is kind of costly,

i saw, installed but never used really, blender and it is a very capable free tool.

but if you want to try a "big one", there is a free version in the alias website, it does everything the full version does, it only put a watermark on your renders.

you can actualy save the objs and render them with some rendering software...

and by the way, does any one tried zbrush ? or poser? i mean, for the purposes of creating PS characters

[Karyuu]

I don't have a lot of experience in this, but I did use Zbrush to quickly make an Enkidukai model that was easily exported for use with 3DS Max and Blender. My problem was that I then didn't know how to take it further Zbrush is absolutely awesome though - Zspheres make modeling very easy, and quite fun.

[Necromagvs]

karyuu,

check the pixologic website or 3dlinks, i think there are some cool tutoriales over there,

you should also try texturing  that pretty cat you  made

i´ll show you later a couple of works, currently i am at the office so my boss wont like me to be 3d modelling kitties

[Karyuu]

I have several really good video tutorials on Zbrush even, so if I have the time I'll definitely play around with it more. The problem is that lack of time and then not understanding the rest of the process UV mapping, rigging, animating, exporting to CS (a nightmare if you don't have an experienced someone to guide you step-by-step), etc. I think I'll stick to 2D art

[Arangol]

I've heard that Zbrush can easily make the polygon amount nearly 1 mil and that Zbrush isn't so good for game art, more for high poly renders. But thats just what I've heard. Never used it myself.

[Karyuu]

Yep, you're right - Zbrush is more for modeling that never makes it into games but is supposed to stand on its own, or for really intense-crazy-woah sort of projects It's -very- easy to take a low-poly model and complicate it, but it's also very easy to create that low-poly model, and export it before the complicating takes place.

[Arangol]

Hmmm.. so I got it this way... You mean there's just a low-low-poly mode and then the high-high-poly mode, nothing in between with Zbrush, either low poly or either 900k polys? Sounds good for movies I think

[Karyuu]

Not quite It's easy to make a low-poly model using the Zsphere tool, but the main purpose of Zbrush is to then expand on that model by almost painting with 3D pixels, so you end up with millions by the time you are "done". You can stop at any stage you want.

[Necromagvs]

yeahp karyuu is right,

however, there are two things i want to add

1. i read about the movie Underworld II on the pixologic website, they figure it out to use zbrush and made low poly model, still have superb quality

2. dont forget that since it allows you to paint with lots of amazing tools the object you can create super textures and they will get a perfect mappig

[Karyuu]

Seriously, the textures some people end up with are just stunning. A neat gallery can be found here.

[Arangol]

Wow, those models are the  !
The bad thing about Zbrush is that you mostly still end up with a lot of polys .
I think its very nice but it isn't used in so many games.