Which Software To Learn And Use

[recipes]

I am planning to learn 3D Graphic Design and am not sure which software application I should invest my time in; Maya, 3ds Max or other.

I read a couple older threads on other forums regarding which application is preferable, but the discussions are quite old and a lot has probably changed.

Can anyone share their knowledge regarding which 3D design application is the best investment?

Thanks

[reuomi]

I'd chose maya, because thats what i use (thought i also use MAx) Renderman isn't a 3d modeling program, it's a renderer that can be used in maya (instead of Maya's MEtal ray renderer)

Only problem is Maya is expensive and so is max, XSI is very cheap but good, but if you want free i'd go with Blender. If you want to get into game modeling in animation you can do what i do (use Maya for modeling and Motionbuilder for animation). Most 3d engines (like Kaneva game platform which i am useign for a mmorpg) perfer eather Max or MAya, and Max is far more widely accepted as a game modelers tool of choice, but i personaly like maya.

SO in short...

MAya: Best tool by far in my opinion widely accepted in the game industry and has been proven agian and agian in the movie industry.

3d studio Max: Perfered artest tool by most game engines. I dont know much about this tool. Has some pretty neat features, and many plugins and inhancments

XSI: Around $500 realtivly suported in many game engines.

Blender: Free, good tool. Constantly growing

Renderman: Rendering Tool that can be used in conjustion with maya (look at starwars ep III)

Deside which works best for you. MAny of these tools have free aditions, Maya has a Personal learnign adition you can download and use for free, no plugin suport though

[carbone]

To learn for hoddie : blender

To learn for a job in 3D : 3DS max.

Maya is ideal too but a little bit less artist friendly than Max (great modeller, animation controller and good renderer)
Go ahead with Maya (great dynamics, animation tools) if u work in a crew with a technical director near for help... otherwise be patient... maya unlimited is all in one package but more expensive than max.

I started alone in my room with Maya, some basic fonctions are nightmare for newbiz (clipping planes, fog, constraint settings!!)...

Max is known more oriented games and maya more feature Film FX... But anyway they both capable... to reveal your talent....

Today I use both, depends the work...

[diabloinc]

I voted for max but here is some more hints.

My ideea is that IF you have time you SHOULD try them all. After all, all above software do the same things but in somehow diferent ways.

Max ideed gives you more freedom just out of the box.
Maya looks weird to start with, but might be better at the end of the line.

As for the rest of them I would not even consider them an option. Why? Looks like Autodesk is moving towards monopol on this area of the market. So is my personal opinion that at the end you'll end up choosing Autodesk software anyway.
Another great thing about Autodesk is that is very clear that this guys are here to stay. So you can count on their support ( up to you if the support is good or not ) even 10 years from now.

Moving on and talking about the free resources u find on the internet. Search Maya, Max, Cinema4d, Softimage, and just count the results on google if you like. Is is a factor that u shoud consider since most of the time you will reffer to this type of help. ONLINE AND FREE

Anyway. the 2 main options as I said are Max and Maya.

As carbone is saying, you might end up using all of them. But still there is one favorite. For me that's max.

Hope this helps. The choice is yours.