moving from lightwave to maya...i think...

[stunndman]

if you are already comfortable with LW why should you abandon it - adding Maya to your repertoire doesn't mean you have to give up LW - combine their strengths if that is possible


also know that knowing the right package at the right time can get you in the door


knowing two (or more) 3d software packages will be a competitive advantage for you

[RobertoOrtiz]

I agree with stunndman. Learn BOTH programs. It can only help you.

Go to www.newtek.com. They have tons of tutorials. I am sure that the Maya people will also show you were you can find tutorials for it.

-Roberto

[fig]

Originally posted by stunndman
if you are already comfortable with LW why should you abandon it

well, the immediate reason would be that i sold my copy of lightwave a while back :) but good points guys, it definitely can't hurt to have knowledge of more than one package.

now i just need to figure out where to acquire those extra hours to learn all this stuff...:)

chris

[Omita]

Both programs are great. I personally like Maya more for animating and like Lightwave for speed modeling. But modeling in Maya is pretty solid once you setup some hotkeys. LW comes pre-configured very nicely.

Anyway... There is a lot to learn in Maya to the road is long. For me the Gnomon DVD's really helped and I also when to a tech school, but that wasn’t nearly as good as the DVD’s. Most of the information was the same, but you can always play the DVD’s over again if you missed something. If you learn the gist of Maya it's a lot easier to understand later on. Using just the “Hot box” helped me out a lot because I concentrated on the Menu system and learned it one way.

I personally find its best to use Maya with a clear mind. Or else you will find yourself wishing that one tool or another tool from LW was there. And then if you use LW you will wish that some of the Maya tools were there. I think both packages take different thought processes... Maya make more sense to me now because I think like a Maya user thinks. I was really struggling when I would think like a LW user and then try to use Maya like Lightwave.

Both packages are great... remember, its not the package, its the work created.

-Hays

[MasonDoran]

i had to do the reverse of you fig! i spent maybe a week in LW...and couldnt wait to get back to maya...the boss just figured i should learn it cuz we have a real LW wiz that just started in the company. But i would rather be good at one program....and in the distant future i feel at least maya will be in more high end companies then LW.


The biggest i find is that because of quite a significant differance in the approach of the interface and workflow(history/channel box/ and the whole node thing) i found myself having to spend more time-and with lots of frustration- of UNlearning.

so i said phuk it...and stick with one app for now

;)

[fig]

thanks for the feedback guys. i'm going to spend a few weeks playing and learning and just see if the mindset clicks or not. i started off using max a bit and then when i found lw never looked back, it just made more sense. we'll see if that happens with maya or not...

chris

[Ed Lee]

No question about it. LW's modeling is prb the best for poly modeling. I started out with LW, then moved to Max (I didn't commit too much with it, realizing it's inherent limitations at the time)...and then finally settled with Maya, unless there's reason to move onto another 3d app...I'm sticking with Maya. Why?...User base...top companies use it...both games and effects co. utilizes Maya.

And alot of free scripts around to help with the process. Also, it's very, very deep so one can get immersed in it to get the most out of it, even you're not a programmer I hear Mel scripting is not as daunting.

And now with free Mental Ray 1.5 plug-in...it's very desirable.

Just my two cents.

Ed--

www.edleeart.com

[RobertoOrtiz]

I just hope this does not become one of those
LW VS maya Threads....

-R

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