MAYA VS 3ds MAX

[roderick]

Ok im want to make game maps and levels when im older and do 3d animation for a big time movie what would be better to learn maya or 3ds max cause when i look online everyone teaches maya for game levels design and not 3ds max what do you all think thanks for your comments. this is about mapping i dont know where else to put it!

[hitmanbob]

for halo ce, u hav 2 use 3dsmax, which is wut most everyone here will use to make halo maps, but for everywhere else i dunno, kuz halo is the only thing i do

[master_wolf]

isnt maya used for UT?

[RDST]

i though maya could be used for almost anything icluding halo(maybe not) but no maya is a all around tool (it just comes with the UT disk and has a UT plugin) i like maya cause it is eaiser to use for a noob like me, but a career max would be the way to go cause it is a lot more beefyer.

[skyman8081]

Halo uses Max as its modeler.

However, most of the post-production houses I deal with all use Maya for modeling and animation, and they swear by it.

A lot of the other ones also use Lightwave for that.

Pixar and ILM both use their own tools for doing modeling and animation, last time I checked.

[Sonictag]

If you want to do 3d animation, I would use maya.

[{ST} 117]

Maya can also be used for Counter Stike Source and HL2 etc. i think.

but 3ds Max is used for Halo.

[master_wolf]

but 3ds Max is used for Halo.

correction for that last part:
"but 3ds Max is used for everything else"

[crimson4245]

i know that bungie used sum sort of version of maya for halo 2

[Sonictag]

Maya is used for more movie rendering purposes, it has a faster and better render engine, although you can get rs's for max that can deliver a similar quality. Also max uses up ALOT of memory, thus it renders slower, maya, on the other hand, doesnt so you can render a bit quicker, but it wont matter much for movie production, as they use a special graphics card with always intel CPU's, as with the new intels you can render 4 squares at a time on max, wheres AMD's you cant unless you get a pretty damn good one.

It is very difficult to decide, they are both quite similar, but Max is the leading 3d program on the market, followed closely by maya so im guessin most people prefer max, I know I do, although maya is very good.

[roderick]

yeah so far i like max cause i think its more user friendly i probly will learn max for 3 years cause im in 9th grade then i will go to school for maya and hopfuly work for like bungie or who ever making games and animation for movies thanks for all your replys

[Pie]

it is said that 3ds max is a little more complicated than maya, but maya is still a little hard to understand. so if you know 3ds max, then you will pretty much get maya right off.

i prefer 3ds max for the sole reason that is is the only thing i use and i'm a ddedicated fool

[roderick]

lol yeah well i have maya and max but maya seems awesome for animation but for the game world not the best like i have a dvd on how they mad halo 2 and there was only one person on that movie that used maya everyone else was useing 3ds max.

[GHL]

alot of you are making bad assumtions as to which program is better,
here is pretty much what you need to know,
Over the years 3DS MAX has evolved from an all-round application to a game development specific one, although its still used for all things, thats its aim at the moment,
maya is aimed more at the high budget movie production teams, ala matrix type big.
maya is infinately more complex than max, max is just catching on with sub surface scattering, thats how far it is behind,
BUT, that aside, i personally find max better with my games development, probably because thats its purpose, as for future career advise, learn max first, and move onto maya, one you learn how 3d works, its only a case of adjusting from max to maya (which takes time, but its definately easier)

[Sonictag]

with the Vray rs, which you can get for both max and maya, you can perform SSS, and I agree, maya is best for movies. They are both powerful, they can both render of a similar quality, but rendering in maya is just easier, you got more options in some cases, and render time is slightly faster due to a lower CPU usage.

[GHL]

yes but any serious work would be done on a renderfarm anyway, so its no real point.

[Sonictag]

That is true..