Software transfer: Max to Maya

[ijinn]

i used MAX to model, but recently moved completly over to Maya, and its been just a breeze... just download MJpoly tools for MAX's poly tools and You'll be just set.

[Spindle]

thanks ijinn, one thing that conserns me is as far as I know maya doesnt have a built-in 'see end result' function, I like to see the smoothed version while I'm working on the low poly. I think theres a plugin for this though. Another thing is softselection, forgive me for my ignorane if I'm wrong, but its not quite the same for selecting a circular area of vertices with lower ammounts of influence.


But I am looking foward to working more with 'set driven key', it just seems to me that you can get a greater level of controll over your rig.

this MJpoly sounds cool, let me see if I understand, does this let you model polys exactly the same way as in max?
with show end result?

Where would I download this from?
thanks
:thumbsup:

[ijinn]

for Softselection, try this.. ;) ClayDough (http://macvizion.com/Claydough/Docs/clayDoughNotes/clayDoughNotes.html)

and for "showendresult"(to preview it as high poly/subdiv) try CPS(Connect Poly Shape) http://dirk-bialluch.mayaring.com/ <-- seems to be down right now..

i only use MJpolytool for Connecting between the edges/vertices, and selecting ring/loop and etc. :) maya doesnt seem to have those features..


check out www.highend3d.com for scripts. and what not.

[samgrice]

yeah i'm trying to learn maya at the moment too. I'm normally a MAX user, but i really want to learn maya as it opens up more doors job wise.

I'm just going through the tutorials now. the only thing i'm having trouble with is the rendering. what i like about max is that you can make something, add a light and hit render... you get good results strait away. But with maya it seems so complicated to even get normal looking results. i'm sure i'll pick it up once i've given it a few more goes.

is there anything like vray or brazil for maya?

[mokz]

there´s Mental Ray - and in Maya´s actual verison 5.0 it´s fully integrated and supports as much features as other render-packages.

until now there´s no 3D-package which satisfy all needs, but for me the great advantage of maya is it´s possibility to opitmize your workflow dramatically, it´s node-based-architecutre which made many things easy to connect and to script your own solutions for different problems with MEL.

[trthing]

Say MEL Script, don't say Plug-in...
Say learn MEL programming, don't say learn how to use Plug-ins...
Say damn aliased/blurred shadow maps, don't say no way I will raytrace...
Say damn long rendering times, don't say I will just add some 200 extra frames...
Say spend time discovering a solution, don't say spend time looking for plug-in that will solve the issue...
Say damn annoying bug, don't say damn bug...
Say hello history and hypergraph, say goodbye modifier stack...
Say plan ahead, don't say throw a lot of objects and textures in and see what happens...
Say learn a whole new jargon, don't say list controller...
Did I say MEL?
Be happy and be worried...

Your Home-Pages: Boris 3D Tuts, cgtalk, highend3d

Hope that helps for a start

:thumbsup:

[Spindle]

I just bought a second hand Maya 3: Using Maya: essentials manual yesterday.......for only AUS$14,50. I have the new (Well I think its the newest) essentials book, the one where there are about 6 different modules to teach different concepts (ol' salty seal on the cover). But I didnt like that one because when I wanted to quickly look up how to do something it was shown in the context of that little project. And half the time I didnt remember which project dealt with the thing I wanted to know.
This way I can just go straight to where I want to go...text book style. My question: this is out of date (duh) but the basics havnt changed too much so this book can still be helpful to me right?:hmm:


Originally posted by trthing

Say plan ahead, don't say throw a lot of objects and textures in and see what happens...


I think thats why when I was learning both of them Max just seemed to make more sense to me. I suppose now that I know (generaly) how 3d works, I'll know what sort of things I'll be doing before I start the project. BUt off hand I like just being able to start it anyway I like without worrying about how it will effect it later down the track. But I spose I'll just have to get used to this:hmm:

thanks :thumbsup:

[Spindle]

I am looking foward to working more with 'set driven key' though it just seems to be a very powerful tool, max doesnt have anything quite the same........wireing just isnt as powerfull.

[trthing]

Max was more "forgiving" than Maya, IMHO.
If you try to use the same workflow with Maya you will end up with 1 hour/frame rendering or something worse...
It is a good self-disciplinary exercise!;)

[orgeeizm]

As for CPS, Dirks Site is:

http://www.lightstorm3d.com

But he just redesigned the site so the download section is not up yet. But im sure someone around here on this forums are willing to upload you their downloaded CPS Tools zip file.

[j00ey]

i'm switching at the moment too
max work seemed to dry up, so now i have a job looking after a renderfarm - daytimes i have to troubleshoot renders [maya, prman, houdini, shake] and look after UNIX, IRIX & linux boxes, but at night [like now] i get to use really fast machines and learn maya.

i missed the toggle end result to start with, and hardly use the hypergraph [i know i probably should but i haven't really grasped what it & multilister are for yet].

what i do like though is NURBS that work like you'd expect them to [a novelty for a max-user], booleans that don't do scribble mesh [but i've read on here that maya booleans are a semi-no-go area too]. per-particle expressions, set driven key, dynamics without reactor...

what i certainly don't like is the polygon/smooth proxy.

question : is there an equivalent somewhere to max's constrain to edge / face when moving vertices in e-poly? is there an equivalent to auto grid.

having a great time learning it all though. somehow it feels nearer to the guts of everything.

j00ey

[JasonA]

Originally posted by Media Munky
I am looking foward to working more with 'set driven key' though it just seems to be a very powerful tool, max doesnt have anything quite the same........wireing just isnt as powerfull.
Actually max does have a similair feature. its the constraint controller, although its performance is sometimes a bit buggy.

[Spindle]

why isnt my new avitar working

[Spindle]

testing 1 2 3

[DeathBrain]

Originally posted by Media Munky
I would really like to hear from anyone else who has done this 'swap over', what were the main difficulties?
would really like to hear some thoughts on this
Thanks
I was with 3DStudio and Max for almost 3.5 yrs, now i am with maya (latest 2.5 yrs)

Something important that you should know about Maya :
- Maya based on historical modeling
- Maya based on (MEL) Scripting
- Maya based on node attributes
- Has Proffesional workflow/hypergraph
- Unlimited : you could connect everything

And of course you should download this (from alias) (http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services/maya/file/3dmax_to_maya.pdf), before you want to 'swap over' from Max to Maya :)

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