m-works, have you ever used 3ds max?
I'm not trying to say 3ds max is better than maya (it doesn't matter anymore anyway since discreet now owns maya) but 3ds max can do hair, cloth simulation,water, soft shadowing...ect and has the best render using a seperate render made for 3ds max. There's vray, final render, Brazil and many others. And you get all of this for less than maya, unless you're either A: a very rich person or B: a doing well company you should get 3ds max.
But as i said before choose the one you're most comfortable with and not what we say, i'm just trying to give helpful advice.
Maya, Blender, or 3Ds Max?
I personally have tried them all, 3ds Max, Blender, Lightwave, Maya(In various places, I don't have them all), and I must say, I have been most comfortable using Blender and Wings, once you learn the Blender interface it gets less scary.
Try to take into account that if your are going for game characters you wont be using things like hairFX and renderers should mean very little except for concept work. Your hair will be all polygon as will the rest of the character.
Another thing I forgot to mention was that, and someone please correct me on the validity of this, blender has a built in game engine to test things like animations and level designs with quickly.
As well, if you have the dedication and the money 3dsmax is a great program with alot of benefits and, if you are going to be going for a job in the industry, is mostly the standard, although some programs like XSI are getting up there (XSI used for half life, correct??). The only trap I would avoid is thinking now that discreet owns Maya maya will change much, I believe that now autodesk owns both programs they will either make compatibiblity better, or they will move maya even futher towards the movie business and keep max in the videogame buisness.
As well, keep in mind that maya does not cost more than max, it costs less than Max AND you can download a free version (with some hardcore watermarks) that has no time limit or save limit, the limitation is the watermark.
Good luck
-slowpid
Another thing I forgot to mention was that, and someone please correct me on the validity of this, blender has a built in game engine to test things like animations and level designs with quickly.
As well, if you have the dedication and the money 3dsmax is a great program with alot of benefits and, if you are going to be going for a job in the industry, is mostly the standard, although some programs like XSI are getting up there (XSI used for half life, correct??). The only trap I would avoid is thinking now that discreet owns Maya maya will change much, I believe that now autodesk owns both programs they will either make compatibiblity better, or they will move maya even futher towards the movie business and keep max in the videogame buisness.
As well, keep in mind that maya does not cost more than max, it costs less than Max AND you can download a free version (with some hardcore watermarks) that has no time limit or save limit, the limitation is the watermark.
Good luck
-slowpid
Quote:Original post by Jarrod1937
3d modeling programs are like an artist and his medium of choice, use whatever you feel the most comfortable with.
Nice said. Use Lightwave3D then :)
how about gmax? That is free. You can practice with that to get skills needed for 3ds max in the future. I'm not sure if there is a plug-in to support .x files or whatever format you need. Gmax is like max 4 . You will pretty much get the picture with gmax it just doesn't render. There are many game modeling tutorials for gmax, and I suggest you check it out. 3ds max is easier for rigging bones. For cinematics maya or 3ds max is good.
If you really need something more advanced than blender, I would suggest Lightwave3D: it is easier to use than 3DStudioMax (IMHO), is cheaper than most of the other apps of the same level and can do everything the others can. Perhaps it's not really suited for nurbs modelling, but if just for this, then you need Maya or Rhino only if you are a professional charachter modeler.
And the provided renderer of Lightwave is very good. Currently you can buy it and Bryce for < 1000$.
And the provided renderer of Lightwave is very good. Currently you can buy it and Bryce for < 1000$.
I would go with something cheaper like Lightwave, Softimage or GameSpace. Even though gamespace has a horrible interface IMO. The thing about Max and Maya are that they offer way more than you will ever need to do game characters. You don't need a high quality raytracer renderer and all the extra things these programs have unless you are creating high end animations.
max and maya are expensive because they are high end industrial tools that can do almost everything. They aren't built with the hobbyist in mind as much as some of the cheaper solutions. Some of the other programs only cost one forum of what those programs cost and offer all you need for creating polygonal characters.
There are also dead cheap programs that specialise in certain areas.
For levels:
Deled
Cartography Shop
For Character Meshes:
Milkshape
Fragmotion
Gamespace
max and maya are expensive because they are high end industrial tools that can do almost everything. They aren't built with the hobbyist in mind as much as some of the cheaper solutions. Some of the other programs only cost one forum of what those programs cost and offer all you need for creating polygonal characters.
There are also dead cheap programs that specialise in certain areas.
For levels:
Deled
Cartography Shop
For Character Meshes:
Milkshape
Fragmotion
Gamespace
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