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Maya 2011 or Blender?

Discussion in 'Asset Importing & Exporting' started by xxxDjdogxxx, Jul 13, 2011.

?

Maya or Blender with unity?

  1. Maya 2012

    39 vote(s)
    42.4%
  2. Blender 2.58

    53 vote(s)
    57.6%
  1. xxxDjdogxxx

    xxxDjdogxxx

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    So me and a friend are at a stand-off, is maya 2012 or blender 2.58 better with the untiy game engine, i say and use maya, and he uses blender.
     
  2. windexglow

    windexglow

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    Which are better for painting : Oil paints, or water paints?

    Both of tools which are going to do mostly the same things. Maya's main advantages over blender won't help when exporting models.
     
  3. hippocoder

    hippocoder

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    maya beats the hell out of blender in every single category, but also costs many thousands.

    Maya does directly help more in game development than blender because maya's tools just automagically work - such as normal map generation, texture baking etc - very stable. For 2D work maya also wins head and shoulders over blender due to the renderers available to maya.

    Another area maya wins are the very robust and actually useful animation tools - these are perfected over many years in production environments. Maya is a clear winner. If you have the money.

    But you know, you're probably not going to afford Maya, given its more expensive than unity pro while blender is absolutely free. And that free part of blender is why it has been embraced by the indie development community.
     
  4. Redbeer

    Redbeer

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    Last edited: Jul 23, 2011
  5. kerters

    kerters

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    windex and redbeer are right, workflow and imagination is the key, the tool is secondary.
     
  6. CharlieSamways

    CharlieSamways

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    Doesnt matter what tool you use, as long as you can supply the right file format and better quality, who in the indie world cares! :)

    As for myself im still on blender 2.49, I have a passionate hate for the new 2.5+ although I know i will get into it eventually
     
  7. drewradley

    drewradley

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    Depends. Do you have a lot of money or a high pain threshold? If you have a lot of money, Maya is the way to go. If you have a high threshold for pain Blender is the way to go (because it's a PITA to learn!). If you have neither, find a third option. :) I recommend you look into DAZ products. Much cheaper than Maya and not as headache inducing to learn as Blender.
     
  8. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5

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    There are some annoying things in Blender, but it's not that hard to learn for game modeling. Most of the confusing stuff you don't even need to use. I seriously doubt that someone completely new to 3D modeling would find Blender particularly more painful than Maya.

    --Eric
     
  9. zine92

    zine92

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    I agree with what most of you have said above. But i think this is up to yourself. Blender have evolved over the years and i think have become quite good in what it does. Maya on the other hand have being a very good tool to use especially in the Animation industry. Max is more suited for game modeling. I think this is rather a who is using it rather than which is better question, I have seen different tools being used for the Unity work flow. Some use Modo, some use Cinema4D, some lightwave. So i think its not a matter of what is better.

    In fact Maya is practically more superior than Blender in this case. Maya is more matured and is for industry but the licenses is just too much. Use what you like and stick with it. It's just like my class have someone who love 3ds max and he can argue why max is better than maya which most of the people in my class are using. It's a matter of preference. :D
     
  10. ColossalDuck

    ColossalDuck

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    Now that Blenders UI is good. Blender.
     
  11. CharlieSamways

    CharlieSamways

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    Its one of the things I actually dislike about the the blender, the UI. their old one was perfectly fine and simple as hell
     
  12. ColossalDuck

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    Well, each to there own I suppose, I found the old one to be really clutterf*cked.
     
  13. Tysoe

    Tysoe

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    If you can afford it most of the pro tools are best. If you can't afford it Blender is an excellent choice. If you use a pro tool like Maya or Max extensively there are a ton of shortcuts and helpers, neat little things that make developing assets a lot simpler. It also helps if you want to work in a professional environment someday. Industry standard tools are required to work at most places and no one has the money to take people off of crunch to teach someone a new app and workflow or leave them to their own devices to learn one on their own.

    It doesn't help that most game job vacancies for artists come about towards the end of development when they need to accelerate asset production to meet deadlines, so you may only get hired a few months at a time since a lot of places can't afford to sustain a large workforce indefinitely, only for the length of a project.

    If your not looking to working professionally and don't have a big budget and are just doing it as a fun hobby you will probably be better off with blender. It does most things if you have patience and is free.
     
  14. xxxDjdogxxx

    xxxDjdogxxx

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    seems as though its is still a stand-off 5 to 5, maya must win.
     
  15. kerters

    kerters

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    the whole autodesk office is already cheering ^^ ;)
     
  16. techmage

    techmage

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    I never had the patience to figure out blender, so I use maya.

    I also do think maya has some features that make it better for game development. The mental ray transfer maps functionality is nice for baking things down into maps and normal maps. Mental ray is a better renderer and baking engine than what blender can offer. So if you were dealing with that stuff in anyway, maya is deal.
     
  17. Blacklight

    Blacklight

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    Another one for Blender, it's free and can do everything you want it to. I also use 2.49 and have a hate for 2.5, because of the new UI and I had a lot of trouble exporting to Unity, so went back to 2.49.
     
  18. tertle

    tertle

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    Personally I've pretty much only ever used 3ds max. I started on max, tried blender at a later date and really didn't like it. It felt so backwards and at times limited. I'm sure it can do anything just seems to take a lot more effort.
    So voted maya if you can afford it. You can get max/maya free if you're a student anyway.

    I'd definately use max or maya though if you can.
    Max is focused on game development whereas maya is more focused on film.
    Max has a distinct advantage for game development using the bi-ped feature.

    http://machinimart.com/maya-vs-3ds-max/
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2011
  19. luhjgh

    luhjgh

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    I got Maya for free at the autodesk site....

    I went there and selected student, and it gave me the program free; not even a trial, the full thing, even an activation code...


    Its useful.

    I like both equally.

    I prefer Maya for animating though.
     
  20. Anthony85

    Anthony85

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    I too am a max user, though I have used both maya (in college years ago) and blender, over the last 5 years or so. The only thing i really don't like about Maya, is it's material editor, I could never get the hang of it in college, and as far as blender goes.....I've tried 2.3/4x and 2.5, and it just looked and felt so primitive, (although 2.56 looked looked alot more "Professional" and useable, to an extent) and the workflow.....*shudders*

    Really though, it's a matter of preference, if you can aford a comercial liscense of Max/Maya/Softimage (the cheapest of the three), go for one of them (and if you're a student, register with Autodesk's Education Community and download the free versions, I did (max 2012 and Mudbox 2012), but, if you can't aford one of The Big Three, and don't feel like getting Modo (I wouldn't advise it ATMO, since Modo still doesn't have character animation tools, no dedicated "Bone" objects that Unity will recognize), then get blender (just be prepared to scratch your head alot trying to figure it out)

    It's also time limited, the liscenses on the Student versions last for 3 years. (a hell of a lot better than the 30 day trials), but they can be renewed/extended, i believe.
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2011
  21. Redbeer

    Redbeer

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    Last edited: Jul 23, 2011
  22. CharlieSamways

    CharlieSamways

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    Yay :) atleast im not alone!
     
  23. hippocoder

    hippocoder

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    I'm quite astonished blender gets more votes. It just goes to show people are voting only for what they know, not for what is better. Its a silly poll anyway. Pretty sure an artist using maya can, and will get better results than using blender if only for the baking tools alone.

    For example your target may be ios and you need a completemap, that is a high resolution model's high resolution textures+lighting+specular+etc are all baked into a lower polygon model's texture. Blender can do this, but due to its poor renderer, it doesn't do it half the quality maya does.

    The argument an artist not the tools matter, doesn't apply when you are using the wrong tool for the job, or a plastic hammer.

    So its great we have blender. But it is not as good. No matter how you swing it.
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2011
  24. Redbeer

    Redbeer

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    Last edited: Jul 23, 2011
  25. Redbeer

    Redbeer

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    Last edited: Jul 23, 2011
  26. hippocoder

    hippocoder

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    Well you can download infinity blade on ipad2 if you like. That's maya work. Or wait until august for my game :) no previews before then.

    I use 3dsmax, not maya for your information, so my above comment was actually unbiased. I am not unfamiliar with maya though.

    No need to be defensive, I accept you love your blender, but I'm certain you'd be more productive with maya and have a better looking result. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

    Its not how big the screen is, its how close you are to the object.
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2011
  27. nathan3228

    nathan3228

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    Maya is the most powerfulest and besides it makes sense Maya(n) 2012
     
  28. techmage

    techmage

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    Also I don't know about this... as I have never used NURBS tools in blender.

    But Maya has really good nurbs tools to work with for creating polygon meshes. I find it pretty invaluable to have.

    I would find it hard to believe blender to have better nurbs tools than maya. From any NURBS pro I've talked to, the only step up from Maya Nurbs is either Rhino, or a 3DS max plugin.

    Also, Maya has HumanIK can be valuable for animating humanoids.
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2011
  29. xxxDjdogxxx

    xxxDjdogxxx

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    Agreed with Hippo about the fact that Maya is better for learning as when i first started i tried out blender to be honest first, but hard a very hard time trying to learn everything and it looked rather unproductive, so i heard about maya and got the student version to learn, and so far its been a blast and my modeling has improved 10 fold. Even though blender is free i would rather buy 3ds max than have to pain fully figure out blenders UI. The one thing i lack though is trying to UV map with maya, does anyone have a tutorial i can follow? because i am still some what new to modeling! here is some of my work in maya 2012.

    $Prop-Mouse-Bed.jpeg
    $Car-Model.jpeg
    $Hover-Boarding-Weapons&Items.jpeg
    $Mouse-Trap-Prop.jpeg
     
  30. Redbeer

    Redbeer

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    Last edited: Jul 23, 2011
  31. Redbeer

    Redbeer

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    Last edited: Jul 23, 2011
  32. hippocoder

    hippocoder

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    The ipad1 version isn't the same as the ipad2 version. http://toucharcade.com/2011/03/11/infinity-blade-comparison-ipad-vs-ipad-2/

    But what about workflow? lets assume you can do xyz in maya in half the time due to its more mature toolset? I find when I am doing modelling, that the quality is directly limited by how quickly I can get it done. If someone spent long enough on mspaint, they could make something that equals photoshop:



    But the intense amount of time involved is also a factor in how well your final result will be. Because in theory with either package, you carry on until you reach a point where you have to say "it is done".
     
  33. xxxDjdogxxx

    xxxDjdogxxx

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  34. Redbeer

    Redbeer

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    Last edited: Jul 23, 2011
  35. techmage

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    I don't mean standard nurbs modelling like how you would use it for making a car in Rhino. I use nurbs tools in maya in very specific ways to help with making low poly models. Maya is actually the best package I've used for mixing lower poly stuff with nurbs tools because you can use 'modify > convert polygon edges to curve' and then use that curve to project the edges of a polygon to another curve that has an unknown number of points. Then run whatever other NURBS functions you want on the surface, convert to polygons and you have a new chunk of mesh whose vertices mesh perfectly with the polygon object you extended it from. I'm finding this functionality invaluable for creating sort of wipeout style futuristic race tracks. Wouldn't even approach Blender or even 3DS max for making race tracks the way I am because of this. I considered Rhino for making race tracks, but found it easier to mix nurbs tools with low poly modelling in Maya.
     
  36. Redbeer

    Redbeer

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    Last edited: Jul 23, 2011
  37. Perfect_Paradigm

    Perfect_Paradigm

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    No in Maya there is no "make geometry editable polygons". I didn't like that about max. In Maya you can do whatever you want to primitives without first saying I want to edit this primitive beyond a primitive. You just do it. :) That extra step annoyed me to where I didn't even want to learn Max.

    For me marking menus are the fastest way to work which is one reason I like Maya so much. Though I had to customize and debloat those default marking menus in the mel files.
     
  38. Redbeer

    Redbeer

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    Last edited: Jul 23, 2011
  39. Redbeer

    Redbeer

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    Last edited: Jul 23, 2011
  40. Redbeer

    Redbeer

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    Last edited: Jul 23, 2011
  41. ant001

    ant001

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    silly question... maya of course....
     
  42. techmage

    techmage

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    heres a screenshot of a very unfinished portion of a track Im working on



    but you can see pretty clearly, much easier to do stuff like that by interpolating meshes along curves then by placing each poly individually

    It really isn't that hard

    Select a line of connected edges on a polygon then go to 'Modify>Convert>polygon edges to curve', specify it to produce a 1 linear curve. Then you just use this curve how would any other nurbs curve. Loft it, connect it to surfaces or whatever. But then when you covert it back to polygons set it to be general tesselation method, type quads, for U and V type put 'per space # of iso params' and for number u and V put 1. Then when you convert the mesh to polygons it will have vertices that line up with the poly mesh you generated your original curve form. Combine meshes, merge vertices with a tolerance of .0001 then you have low poly nurbs generated mesh connected to the rest of your stuff...

    I may be wrong, but I do not think its that easy to utilize nurbs tools in blender for low poly modeling
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2011
  43. Redbeer

    Redbeer

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    Last edited: Jul 23, 2011
  44. callahan.44

    callahan.44

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    Even though GIMP/Blender can do the job, if you want to pursue a career in the industry, learning Photoshop/MAX is more advantageous. (Maya for character animation - better custom rigs and seems to work better with Motionbuilder)

    Personally I prefer Lightwave/Modo.
     
  45. techmage

    techmage

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    Im sure you could replicate it in anything, but for me its a question of which tool is just simpler to work with and has more functions straight out of box? And maya does have a more comprehensive NURBS set than blender, even though you could replicate all of what it does in blender.

    And I don't think this is the killing point of blender at all and I don't intend it to be. I am the type of person that jumps between alot of different applications. Zbrush for sculpting, sketchup for architectural modelling, modo for subdiv modelling, softimage for transfer maps/baking, silo for UV mapping, rhino for serious nurbs modelling. Maya for this poly/nurbs stuff, box modelling and rigging/animating for unity. 3DS max for vertex painting and rendering. Cinema4d for character animation for short films and animated graphics. I think it is silly to keep allegiance to a single application when becoming proficient with something else could make things go with less fuss.
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2011
  46. AnomalusUndrdog

    AnomalusUndrdog

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    I like the old Blender GUI too, I hope the new one isn't too different.
     
  47. Tiles

    Tiles

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    One of the bad things in Blender is that it still lacks of N-Gons, which means modeling is limited to Tris and Quads. Makes polygon modeling in Blender complicated as hell compared to a software that is able to handle N-Gons. I had cases in Blender where i would`ve had to remodel the mesh where i just needed to reconnect a edge in another software. I cannot recommend Blender for modeling at the moment. It`s years behind. The rest of the software is not this bad though. And the new interface makes it easier to use for the masses. The old UI was a big user unfriendly hurdle.

    What i like at Blender is features like the projection painting. My advice would be: when you can afford Maya, then buy it. And use Blender for the things where it has the better workflow/tools/results.
     
  48. Wahooney

    Wahooney

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    Disclaimer: I am a Blender-boy and proud of it, I come from a 10-year 3ds Max background ( and I knew how to use it ) and I converted to Blender 3 years ago and have not regretted a moment of it. Disclaimer Ends

    Although many commercial apps are really good at what they do in their respective fields (most studios use a mixture of 3d apps, including Blender in some pipelines, BTW), there is incredibly little that you can't do in Blender for 3D game dev (and that list is shrinking). Some things are a little wonky (texture baking in Blender needs a kick in the ass) and some things are just plane awesome (projection texture painting and high poly sculpting in 1 app!).

    There are only 2 things I'm personally missing: some sort of motion retargeting system (which is being created for Blender in this Year's Google Summer of Code) and n-gon modelling (also coming really soon in the form of BMesh). But I find that those things can be worked around.

    As for a choice between Maya and Blender... If you can afford Maya and you really want it, go for it! I personally feel it's a little clunky for my tastes, but then it takes all sorts to make a world :p

    If you can't afford Maya... DON'T PIRATE IT! No... Shut up. There is no justification for it... Rather use Blender in the mean time, get your 3D skills up (if you can model in one app you can pretty much model in ANY app, all you need to do is learn the new 'language' and you'll be golden), make your awesome game, make money and if you feel at that point that your game creating needs aren't met by Blender (I'm guessing that 99% of them will), use your newly acquired finances and get Maya and make more games.

    This has been a public service announcement, flaming won't be encouraged, don't forget to tip your waitron, don't feed the troll, drive home safely.
     
  49. xxxDjdogxxx

    xxxDjdogxxx

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    ehhh??
     
  50. Redbeer

    Redbeer

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    Deleted by poster.
     
    Last edited: Jul 23, 2011