3D Software, you're opinion . . .

I was just wondering what the pro's and con's are of the major 3D software. I'm talking about Maya, 3D studio Max, Blender, Houdini, Softimage XSI, Lightwave, Poser, Rhino, Vue de'spirit, and Cinema 4D.

I know a few:

Lightwave - about $800.00, nice interface and modeler slight learning curve issue, (I definitely had to follow many tutorials and purchase a book, and I still suck), Total texture control, I find animating humanoids a little difficult.

3D studio Max - about $4000.00, confusing interface (too me at least), good renderer support, lot's of free tut's and models (same with Lightwave). I've played around with this also and found it difficult to get things going.

Maya - used a bit. Really confusing
Blender, Softimage, Rhino, Vue de'spirit, Cinema 4D - Don't know, never used.

Poser - great for people, bad for everything else.

Well, that's my opinion anyways.

What software do you use? What is it that you like about it? If you could use any software, what would it be?

Gosh, this sounds like an interview or something. Sorry.

Jamball

 

I use 3d Studio Max for two reasons:

1) I got a free copy from somebody who didn't want it anymore...always a perk...

2) I've never found the interface all that difficult. Most of the stuff w/3d studio max I've figured out on my own without consulting tutorials. It's not that hard, really...

Having not seen other 3d programs, I can't say which one is best. I did see blender, however...I was totally lost...

Anyway, any 3d program is going to require you to learn something in some way or another and any 3d program can produce spectacular results if u put time and effort into it.

 

For someone on a more realistic budget (i.e. everyone here), it would be worth taking a look at Electric Image Universe. It's about $350 and does so much of what you want to do.

I would strongly recommend first purchasing Universe in the form DvGarage's 3dtoolkit for $99. It includes a ton of training tutorials and quicktime companion videos. The 3d toolkit version of the Universe animator and modeler does not include all the more high end features of the full Electric Image version but will get you off the ground in learning a production grade 3d tool.

 

Vue D'Espirit is really only good for landscapes involving vegetation and other fine details. Basically, when Terragen says 'Heck no, I ain't doin' that!', you can look to V D'espirit.

 

Well, if you want to do visual effects for a living, you need to learn Maya. I used 3ds max first and got hooked on it. Now I have to leave 3ds max and start using Maya. But max will always be my first love.

 

Just my opinion but here it goes:

3ds Max - I have this and I love it. I'd highly recommend it. I haven't worked with Maya, softimage, etc. But I love 3ds Max

Terragen - A must if you want an ultra-realistic looking mountain or terrain for a background plate for compositing.

Vue D'Esprit - A must if you want an interactive, detailed environment with vegatation and all. When it comes to detailed environments I'd go with this one (and yes, I own Bryce and Terragen as well and Vue is better)

Just my opinion.

 

I'd say try all of them that offer free learning versions first.. then move on to demos of the others so as to not go broke its my opinion that most of these packages can produce great images, granted it may be easier or quicker in another but over all if you know how to work the darn thing then it can produce very good images..

personally i use lightwave, and u've got the price wrong somewhat.. its $1500 for the full retail (400 for academic) but anyway i find it to be easy to use. Its my first real big 3d software and i've liked it more than 3dsmax or maya, mainly because of its split interface (modeller and layout) but many people find this to be detracting... its definately got a great renderer, maybe more dated than the others at this point but its perfectly capable of creating good images. Plus with the release of lightwave 8 soon it'll have better tie ins with 3rd party rendering agents like renderman or mental ray.. but i do agree with you its character animation is kinda lacking, which should be improved when lightwave 8 comes out in fact alot of things will be better from what i've seen.. *wonders how long it'll be tho*

also one last thing.. last i checked max was $3000

 

Thanks!

Jamball

 

I use Max, and I like it a lot. But it does have to add on a lot of stuff. $4,000?!! That's strange, it regularly costs only $3,000 and I can get it for $500 on student pricing. But I don't like Lightwave because it's slow, and I hate that. But one thing that I must say, never, ever, EVER, get Animation Master, it is the worst waste of money I ever spent, it stinks really bad and it costs $300 so don't get it. But at some point I would try to learn Maya since that's what the professionals use the most.

 

What really seperates Maya from the rest?

I apologize for my pricing errors. The Student version of any of these programs is definitely the way to go.

Jamball

 

Bryce

To be specific, Bryce 5.
I use it for 3d effects in movies and such, and it works very nicely. It does some pretty nifty stuff. (check link in signature,) but it's not nearly as powerful as Max or Maya. The best part though, is that it's only 50 bucks! (if you go to the right places)
But if you have an actual budget (wouldn't THAT be nice) you should get a better program.

 

Cinema 4d here.

 

whoa! nice stuff for bryce...

my thoughts...

bryce... the only prog i really know well. very easy to play with and understand. works well, seems to do enough. and at such a low price (i got it for $85 by an educational discount).

animation master... i dont like this program that much. i spent a lot of time learning it and i am still confused when i try to use it. some features are nice, but certainly available in more expensive programs. also, it only uses its own models no importing (at least nothin that i know of/that works well)
i would stay away from this. its just alot of trouble. definately the most frustrating prog i have ever used.

thats the two i know well...

 

What separates Maya from the rest?

Factually - nothing.

Problem with Maya in the 3D world is the same as the problem of Avid in the editing world, or Pro-Tools in the music world, or AutoCAD in the CAD world..or.....

...it's the "de facto" standard. It's what "everybody else uses". If you want to worry about compatibility with "everyone else" or to be able to sit down at "everybody elses" system and just start working, then you should worry about picking the above programs.

But... Pro-Tools is FAR from the best DAW (Digitial Audio Workstation). AutoCAD is far from the best CAD package (and I worked for Autodesk for years ... but maybe it's coz I saw the sourcecode...*giggle* ) ... Avid is *FAR* from the best editing app, and Maya is *far* from the best 3D program.

I'm in Pixels seat exactly; A maxhead that knows Max backwards, forcing myself to learn Maya coz "youza gotz to know it" basically. Maya makes my veins pop, and the renderer is..... icky.

/Z

 

Mental Ray is icky?!?!? First time I've heard that one ;-). Granted the connection is not as seamless as the one in XSI but it's usable. The Maya renderer is another point but I've seen some pretty good renders out of it, but just like the old native Max renderer it took effort to get good results.

Factually?!?! Well I guess depends how you take it. A real artist that knows backwards and forwards a low end tool will most certainly beat a rookie or someone dense in the head using the most highend gear there.

Though you could certainly do some broad comparissons and still be fair. Say Maya has very good parametric surfaces capabilities but compared to others is weaker at polys (though getting better). Or few packages compare with the openess, flexibility and extension capabilities offered by MEL and the API., and so on, etc. And depends on your use as well, if you are doing game low poly characters you might be better with something else. Then again it's difficult to have these discussions without falling into flamage.

 

I must 3dsmax is very easy! I love it! Mental Ray is way too old. I got Brazil its sweet. The only thing that keeps me from shifting to maya is cuz its too system intensive and slow even on a p4 2.1ghz 1 gb ram and 128mb geforce. Max has more plugins that can enhance its capability a lot!
billy3d

 

There's a reason that nearly all the major studios switched over to Maya and it not because someone held a gun to there head. Anytime your trying to switch over to another software it's going to seem limited compared to the software that your used to. Maya has its week points (trax and bevel), but its strengths out weigh its weeknesses by far. You can customize Maya around your workflow and to a point someone wouldn't even know that your running Maya. Maya's animation tools are the best that I ever used, I can't say they are the best because I haven't used every software.

Mental Ray old, I'll give you that, but there has been upgrades since then. The only thing that I found outdated in MR is it's motion blur. Again MR's foe is complexity, it takes poeple a long time to learn therefore it sucks. And MR is the second most used renderer, behind RenderMan, used by the major studios, so it must be good for something.

Bill - What are you talking about? Your system is more powerful then mine and I run Maya with cloth, fur, high rez subDs, particles, with MR gi and fg. It doesn't seem to slow down my system any.

 

All you need is 3Ds Max and few plug-ins. Simple as that.

The interface is quite logical and simple to use once you?ve spent a fair bit of time with it. It does use a lot of RAM, but can produce some fantastic results.

I've used both Max and Lightwave and I prefer Max.

 

Well, actually, Maya's interface is quite logical as well. It's interface is laid out quite nicely. I'm just used to 3ds max so I'm having to re-learn where everything is. That is the most frustrating part.

I can spend two hours looking for an option in Maya, when I could do it in two minutes in Max. But once I learn Maya, I have I feeling I will like it better than Max.

And Zap, I have to disagree with you. Maya has built in fluid dynamics, cloth simulation, and volumetric particle rendering. Max only has dynamics that are meant to be used for gaming. Maya's dynamics are built for visual effects.

Maya also has paint effects, which are AWESOME once you figure out how to use them.

 

Yeah, fluid dynamics is indeed an edge.

But the built in renderer (not mental ray, the other one) is icky. Thing is, until recently I had nothing but maya PLE, which is 4.5 with an ugly watermark and the craptacular renderer and yukness attached. So that might color my judgement on Maya

But to be frank, and my point is, no package is inherently inferior to another. It depends on what you want to do, and how... my point is, while Maya is the "de facto standard", it doesnt mean it is factually "the best". It's not... it's just the "de facto standard", and nothing else. It's quite good, sure, but it's more serendipity than anything else that caused that particular package to hold that particular position. (See discussion above on Pro Tools, AutoCAD and Avid)

/Z

 

I would have to say that Maya is one of the best for its animation tools, dynamics and such. I suck at modeling and rendering but am fairly accomplished at animating... and I love the level of control you can get with Maya. Melscripts can be fun too if you know what you're doing. I would still say best bang for your buck is 3D studio max... (I still really like maya though... just gotta get other people to model things for me )

 

People basically use Maya because it already has stuff in it that other programs don't, like hair, water, clouds, cloth, and stuff like that. But that's basically it. Max has to add all the plugins for that and that can bring it up to the Maya level. But they do use Max for movies, such as X-Men, The Core, and Final Destination 2. But most places use Maya.

 

Maya's renderer is not bad, it's just not built for the casual user. Way back when, some of Alias's higher end customers requested more flexibility and control from the renderer, so that's what Alias gave them, an almost totally open renderer. To make Maya's default rendered stuff look good, you have to do alot of tweaking. So yeah, as a pushbutton renderer it's not good, but as a renderer it's actually pretty killer. You just have to get your hands dirty, which is the real beauty of Maya. I know it's a pretty common argument that people would rather create content than mess with the software, and that's valid, but at the same time, I think it's great to be able to bang out custom tools and have software that adapts to your workflow rather than having to build workflow around a tool. 90% of the tools I use are custom MEL scripts i've written, including something that's about the equivalent of character studio for maya. . .

. . .so I'd say Maya has the biggest learning curve (next to Houdini anyway), but the stuff you can do with Maya I think makes it worth it. Maya is a de-facto standard for fx a good reason, recall that Softimage 3D was the standard for a LOOOOOONG time, so i'm guessing to unseat it took something decent.

Play around with everything though, no sense learning and using a tool you don't like if you're just doing your own work.

 

Yeah I'm in the process of learning Maya... but... when I'm in the position that, if Max doesn't do something for me, I write a plugin.... the incentive to get down and gritty with Maya keeps wandering off

/Z

 

Ditto with maya. . .if it doesn't do something I want i write a MEL script. Or if I need more functionality I can write a plugin as well. But this is all really specific stuff, I'm not really saying maya is the best at anything, it's just what I prefer, and even better, it's what i get paid to do, which never hurts