Q: I would like some time to learning one of these investments, but not sure yet.
Which stronger?
Which is easier to learn and make something useful?
Blender appeals to me because it is free under GNU.
Best Answer: I used Maya a few years ago, and I've used Max on and off over the years, but I always come back to blender. I'm now teaching 3D modeling and game development with it, and it's a truly remarkable tool.
For what you're doing, I don't think there's any reason to look anywhere else. Blender doesn't do absolutely everything the big boys do (for example nurbs support is still limited) but it does almost everything, and it does these things very well. It has several texture options including procedural textures, ray-tracing, subsurface scatter, u/v mapping, vertex paint, and texture baking. It has sophisticated animation support including solid body animation, armatures, skeleton posing, inverse kinematics, shape keys, and much more.
It also has some features you still aren't finding in other modelers at any price.
The game engine in particular is an incredible feature. It allows interactive game creation with user input, a real physics model, (same one used on the playstation) collision-detection, and projectiles, all without programming. When you're ready to make the jump to programming, Blender integrates the entire Python language (not a subset) so you can do anything you can do with Python, including networking and other sophisticated modules.
Blender also includes a workable non-linear video editor, which allows you to build movies directly within blender without having to jump to another app. It supports most kinds of transitions and other basic effects you'd expect in a simple video editor.
You can export blender files to any of the other major formats, so compatibility isn't a major problem, and it is being used increasingly in both cinema and gaming. Look at this video:
http://peach.blender.org/
and this game
http://www.yofrankie.org/
for examples of what amazing things people are doing with Blender.
You will not get bored of blender nor outgrow it for a very long time. It's also growing and changing exponentially, so in the unlikely case you learn it all, you'll find there are always new ideas being added to the system.
I can purchase other modelers quite cheaply through my school association, and I haven't. I simply haven't found any reason to use anything but blender yet.
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Re:If you're starting out, you could try Anim8tor…its free, and rather nice.
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Re:Maya and Max are better than Blender. The Blender interface is badly designed when I used it 7 years ago and it still looks the same today. I also tried Rhino3D and Truespace and eventually found Maya. Given the amount of learning and time I've devoted to Maya I'm not particularly interested in learning a new package anytime soon. I still haven't learned 90% of what the program offers after all these years. Mostly, I've done modelling and only took a glimpse at animation and texturing my models.
I say the top programs available today are Maya, Softimage, Max and Lightwave in no particular order. In the end your skillz with the program determines what you can make with them. If you're good with art then you'll do well with modelling. It takes a lot to be a decent modeller, texturer and animator.
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Re:I would say start with 3dSM. It's a bit easier to grasp. Maya is the industry standard in modeling so it will cater more to professionals who know what they're doing. And I hear from some veterans that it's still intimidating.
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Re:I find that Maya is easier to use than 3ds Max however I use both anyway for my work.
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Re:Here's my result with years of off and on toying around with 3d software.
none of the software really matters unless you have some artistic skill or can visualize what you want =) Much like programming, certain programs will be better than others at certain things. when you learn the syntax/interface of the particular tool, it will just become another trick in your batbelt.
Blender is a great program, especially for being free/open source. If you are starting early art classes, go ahead and try to learn it in parallel with other software. Sure you might not progress as fast, but it is full featured compared to the free offerings of the commercial software (ie, no watermarks, i'm not sure what the limitation of gmax is).
After years of hammering away at 3d, i've finally accepted i'm not creative enough in the artistic sense to take advantage of the software. I guess i'll stick with chemical engineering, hehe.
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Re:Just to add some perspective:
"The first large professional project in which Blender was used was Spider-Man 2, where it was primarily used to create animatics and previsualizations for the storyboard department."
"As an animatic artist working in the storyboard department of Spider-Man 2, I used Blender's 3d modeling and character animation tools to enhance the storyboards, re-creating sets and props, and putting into motion action and camera moves in 3d space to help make Sam's vision as clear to other departments as possible."[1] – Anthony Zierhut, Animatic Artist, Los Angeles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_%28software%29
I'm just starting out in Blender myself, so I'm no expert.
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Re:dont go with blender, the interface is so wastly different from other programs that it will only hinder you from learning the others later on. Well the interface between maya and 3dsmax is also wastly different, but not by as much
Its true that max has better polygon tools and to make maya a functional polygon modeling tool you have to install free addon scripts found somewhere. The same used to be the case with max a few releases ago but its all built in now.
3dbuzz, hiiiighly recomended along with the tutorials on 3dtotal.com
and frankly, while you are learning and not making any money out of using the programs the big companies wont care that much if you use a legal or non legal versions of their software, but who knows. If you want to get it legaly then I recomend what guy said, get either gmax or maya ple, the maya version is better though, its basicly maya with a few limits and watermarks if I remember correctly but the gmax program is kinda different from the max version.
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Re:Maya and Max are a lot better, but $2000 more.
Both are very good and used by Professionals in everything from Game content creation to use in Movies. Max has better Polygon modeling support prefferred for Game Content, while Maya has better NURBs support prefferred by those who use Organic Modeling(film/Movies). Many Professionals end up learning/using both often.
As for learning those 2, goto 3DBuzz (http://3dbuzz.com) and checkout the VTMs(Video Training Modules) that are available Free.
If you want to learn 3DSMax, there is a Free version available that used to be called GMax, but I believe they've recently changed the name. Maya also has their PLE(Personal Learning Edition) that is free.
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