If your PC meets the system requirements you can use Mudbox for $10/month which will work for any detail sculpting you might need to do.
Maybe if it wasn't my first 3D program I would be thrown off by the differences between it and previous packages, but coming in fresh, I was quite comfortable after a few youtube tutorials. There's lots of people who say "Blender's UI is terrible", but other than the fact that the first time you boot it up, you have to go into the options to switch left- and right-click, I don't really see it.
At which point your choice is between a several thousand dollar program, and one you can download for free. On the other hand, if you just want to make some models for your game and move on with your life, there's not really any huge extra functionality in Maya that you can't find in Blender. If you want to actually do 3D modelling for a living, you might as well get used to one of the most commonly used programs in the industry, since generally, big game studios aren't going to use Blender. The biggest reason to learn Maya is, tautologically, to learn Maya. Really, there's an argument to be made for Maya and an argument to be made for Blender, it really comes down to what you intend to do with the software. In-person resources and 10x more valuable. Tl dr Learn what you have the most resources for.
This will legally restrict you from doing paid work with that license but it will continue to function. Generally speaking you will be able to continue using your Student License as you have it now even after you graduate. It can be slower to get going with.Īdditionally you will have to make a choice after school for what program to continue using. So many of Maya's users are professionals (or were taught in school) that there is not as strong of a "self-taught" community. Maya is an accepted standard but because Blender has such a large beginner community their beginner-level documentation is solid. Maya's biggest issue for many people is the price. None of us use Blender currently, but I'm sure some of us have at some point.īecause it is used in the industry as well as in schools there is good amount of documentation. But Maya is the common point that everyone knows at least a bit of. Companies will make accommodations, guys on my team use SoftImage, Maya, Max, C4D, and Modo. I recommend Maya for the following reasons: So what you have for resources matters a good friend or teacher can be invaluable to you if they know the same program. You will get stuck or have issues at some point either way. When learning, the best program will be the one you can find the easiest answers on. They also have some pretty decent texturing tools. Personally, I'd go with Maya, as I like their polygonal modeling tools, it has been a few years since I've used it but I can't imagine blender has one-upped them. But Blender puts EVERYTHING right in front of you from the start, Maya hides countless features deep down inside contextual menus and obscurity. (It was for me, I still struggling with some of the blender magic). Honestly it's going to be easier to learn blender and then Maya than the other way around. If your goal is to only create the art assets, use whatever tool you like. Nowadays unity / UE3/UE4 do a lot of this already. There is a lot of man-hours that often go into the export export pipeline for a game engine. This includes auto-rigging tools, texture helpers, and countless other aspects of animations (grabbing motion curves, blah blah).
This means if you need custom tools to dump out assets, it'll probably end up being easier, granted you need to do the leg work of getting the fbx sdk up and running for your purposes.Īs for game development, almost all big studios use Maya or Max because a sophisticated pipeline often exists for animators / artists. Now, I'm unsure if blender implements a lot of the fbx pipeline, but maya certainly does. One good thing to point out is Maya's integration and usage of the FBX SDK which is basically a core component of Maya. Feedback Friday Screenshot Saturday Soundtrack Sunday Marketing Monday WIP Wednesday Daily Discussion Quarterly Showcase Related communities 1 For questions, get in touch with mods, we're happy to help you.
Free assets OK, be sure to specify license. If you need to use screenshots, that's ok so long as is illustrates your issues.ĭo not solicit employment. Use discord, /r/indiegames, /r/playmygame or /r/gamedevscreens.īe specific about your question. Feedback, praise, WIP, screenshots, kickstarters, blogs, memes, "play my game", twitch streams.