Question.

I m using nature Poly maker, but i want roll to another program just not really know decide >.<

so which is better for polygon 3D Studio MAX or Maya?

 

3D studio max I believe. There both great but Ill have to go with 3d studio

 

I use 3ds studio max myself! It's epic!!

Torrent the 2013 designer edition :3!

 

mmmm

Actually both.

use Maya for Poly modeling since it has better subdivision tools and can handle better the weights of vertex for precise shapes, and the model workflow is better if you learn it first.
Use 3Ds max for lightning and rendering since is more straight forward than Maya´s, plus the 3rd party render plugs work far better in Max (Chaos Group V-Ray is the very best)

Max modeling is very simple but it requires a lot of fine tuning due to subdivision algorithms that create aberrations in the surface when doing Booleans or other forms of complex and composite shapes, which Maya have and can do cleaner shapes than Max; which by the way is absurd since both programs are from Autodesk, one would think that they would correct that issue but they haven´t.

And by all means, use V-ray to render if you are jumping into that world.

 

after seeing this thread i feel like im the only1 around here who doesnt do this kind of thing xd feeling like a noob here xD

 

I would suggest either 3DsMax or Blender. Blender as faaar more functionality, but is a little harder getting used to, while contrary is true for 3DsMax. Maya is good for movie making xD

 

3D max

 

Not that I wish to start an argument of any kind, but after being 6 years working for TV and in the post producing industry I feel much obliged to say something.

Actually 3Ds max was created as a multipurpose tool for 3D solutions back at the end of the 90s, it actually ran in MS-DOS, that is why it has a lot of everything but lacks specializations, like for instance Maya. Maya was developed as a tool for modeling and to provide solutions for the movie effects that were starting to bloom in the mid 2000; hence why it handle modeling and the animation tools are more straight forward. Its model bending tools have a lot of tweaks to create all sort of effects and to do very precise animations, its specially good if you wish to do motion graphics for instance. Max on the other hand, as a multipurpose tool, has a lot of tools for animation, and in fact you can animate every single plug or value of absolutely anything you want, but is not precise, it does not allow for fine tunes and you end doing hand correction key by key every time. When those 2 softwares were competing back in 2005 or around, Blender was nothing more than a small project of a free 3D modeling software with some limited capabilities on rendering and animation, many though that it would see its end in a couple years when the monsters programs like Maya and 3Dsmax would manage to consolidate and to become uncontested. Yet that never happened, Max jumped from owner to owner, from Kinetic, to Discreet to Autodesk; same happened to Maya, who was bought by Autodesk and then it started to get yearly versions that improved little or nothing giving only cosmetic features. Both softwares haven´t changed much and remain at the core the very same things as they were back in 2005. Max still has a lot of errors and bugs and limitations in its coding and Maya is still very unfriendly for many. Many theorized that Autodesk would mix both softwares or simply share stuff from one to the other but it never happened.

And that allowed Blender to grow by the dissatisfaction of the big softwares users. Blender is a great choice, I am not entirely familiarized with it but it can do a lot of stuff, but it lacks many of the things that Maya and Max have, nevertheless, you can still do amazing stuff with it, and is still growing in the right direction.

And those are not the only softwares you can find: Softimage XS is another powerful 3D tool, Metal Gear Solid 4 was made using that one, in fact Kojima productions works only with that, or it was like that until some years ago. The other software that took the underground approach was Lightwave, this was used for the most professional people back in the day, it was a software that beyond modeling and animating, was more focused in lightning and rendering, the software was divided in 2 different parts, one that handled the construction of elements and the other that did the lightning and rendering, while this approach was hard to use, and the learning curve was step, the results were magnificent to say at least, and with no use of 3rd party rendering engines.

Which to say, is a big thing on itself. Rendering engines populated the market some time ago, at first it was Mentalray; this one started as a third party pluging that allowed fantastic rendering results at the cost of a lot of procesing power and a lot of patience, this opened the door for many young people to start their own rendering engines. Brazil appeared then, it was project that was born as a result of the Ghost engine, but more streamlined and efficient at the cost of overall quality, but way better than the skyline system of the Max and Maya, and any 3D tool at the time. The other one that appeared at the time was V-ray, that was and in my opinion, it is the best rendering system to date, is easy to use and provides results with few clicks, at the contrary of Mentalray and Brazil that the results are never quite you expect at first. MentalRay then was bought by Discreet and then by Autodesk, and it became part of the package of the 3Dsmax and Maya. All these plugs are a pale reflection of the GodFather Renderman created by Pixar- Funny story here: I downloaded it and installed it with quite difficulty, took me a whole day; when it ran it was a full screen grid with only a file and edit button on top in a windows menu type, all the light and effect was to done by pure coding... My poker face triggered, then my **** face, and then the Yao Ming laugh while uninstalling.

The other software that you may like to look at is Cinema 4D. This one was constructed and specialized for the use of Post Producing market and Motion Graphics artist, it has some very neat tools that allow some crazy movements of lines and other effects that are typical of these type of media. This software also grew enough so Third party rendering plugs were made for it, Vray for instance.

There is a lot of debate of what is better and what not, I grew with 3DSmax and I think it provides what I want and need to do a graphical work. Many of my friends and ex colleges would prefer Maya, but the time I managed to do the same stuff and configure an scene in Max was done in half the time than in Maya so they asked me to teach them. While a person I meet was awesome with Cinema 4D and we asked him to do the Motion Graphics for the projects. My friend was very good at Maya and i asked him to always make me animations of soft bodies, like flags or curtains. But I was the one to do animations and to build the rigid stuff in Max and to do the rendering in Vray. Considerig we were always against the clock, Max and vray was the fastest solution balancing good quality and less After effect time. XD...

In any case Nyu. Choose whatever you want, but if you want to focus in Poly modeling, go to Maya; its harder to learn, but the results are better. Max is easier but with less control and finesse. That´s that.

 

Thanks for the overview. Professional opinion is much better than a layman one xD