Is Maya good? really good?

[flamedevil]

When you use Maya and when you wanna work like a professional , you need some plug-ins for maya like : Voiceworks , Arete Nature tools , Swiffworks ....

And you need renderer : Renderman or mental ray ( a raytracer).

For texture , Maya have very good tools like the 3dpaint tool etc...
but deep paint 3d is better .

OK OK OK ... that's all :)

[svenip]

ahhh uhhhh. that's alway a question you can't really answer. what you can say is "i can work with the best with that programm" but that doesn't mean that it's the best. whatever programm you buy and try to learn it over a long time will be the best for you. i come from softimage and never thought of anythign better then that. then i went over to maya and now i think i will never get something better.

your life as a 3D artist will be a life of learn. if you stay on one programm and don't give the other ones a try you're lost in a few months or years. i would say put them all together with their strenths and we will have the best.

it's not the software that does the job it is you and your ability to understand the backgrounds.

my opinion is that it's the wrong way to get all the latest plugins and have them all installed. try to get the same results just with the standard software. it is definitly possible and the working on that will bring you more forward then go thorugh some little tutorials for a new plugin, but you'll never understand the background of that.

maya has really all in it you will need in your work.

[rebo]

admittedly ive only been using maya for a month. But i have to say i love it. Whenever i try to use 3dmax again, something i stuggled with for a long time, i feel ill. For me personally the maya interface is what makes it, your expressions and ideas are much eaiser to digitize if u know what i mean.

[mix]

Im with rebo, there is something about Maya that just, umm arrr mmm, I cant put my finger on it feels good, maybe it is the interface, and my main app before maya was lightwave which has a completly different feel to it which also feels good and I cant put my finger on why. AAaa.. never mind about the app, learn 3D.

[CIM]

Maya is an over-hyped, mediocure high-end program. While it has great animation, scripting, and dynamics tools, the rest of the program is somewhat lacking.

Professional Maya users generally look to the power of Lightwave when modeling, rendering, and surfacing. For some time now, Maya has been known as a plugin for Lightwave.

Do as any smart person would do and get the demos, though. You can see which you prefer and will what to spend countless hours using. :bounce:

[wireFrame]

I use Maya but I also use 3dsmax and Softimage (and Rhino).

They are just tools. If you only have one app then stick with it. I use all of them in various situations were I know which one of them could do the job fast. If I have to beat a tight deadline, I have to use Max or Softimage (use a lot of cheating). If I have enough time, I use Maya (character animations). If I just want a model (of a product) then I use Rhino3d.

It's not the software that counts--it's the Artist who delivers a good job whatever software he uses.

[svenip]

oohh common CIM. the subds in lightwave may be a good way. but maya has also suds in it. and you really think subds are the only one you need ? nurbs will never die, because it's more accurate. and you can believe the guys from AW "industry leading nurbs".

and i never spoke to someone who said "maya is a plugin for lightwave". i guess not even the guys from newtek would say that.

so please don't start a flame ware here. tell what you think it's good about maya and don't compare it to the competeters. there shouldn't be a competetion between all the software :hmm:

[Lyr]

Originally posted by CIM
Maya is an over-hyped, mediocure high-end program. While it has great animation, scripting, and dynamics tools, the rest of the program is somewhat lacking.

Professional Maya users generally look to the power of Lightwave when modeling, rendering, and surfacing. For some time now, Maya has been known as a plugin for Lightwave.



Once again more baseless assertions from CIM. If you are going to make wild claims like that, BACK THEM UP.

[graphiouz]

CiM very mature answer:shame: arrggg.

If you learned max and you are able to produse nice stuff with it, and you feel comfty working with it., stick with it, max is just as good as maya or any other software. i dont think you should just switch because you have seen great stuff, like a tutorial or images.
I like Maya very much, the only tool i feel comfty with..

.

[CIM]

http://thebeaverproject.com/

The Beaver Project was created since alot of Maya users were unhappy with Maya's modeling, surfacing, and rendering and wanted to use Lightwave.



If you look at alot of projects using Maya, you'll see that Lightwave is used for the modeling as well as alot of other things.

http://www.lightwave3d.com/product/projects_list.html

I'm not saying Maya ****s. I'm just pointing out it's not the god of everything when it comes to CGI.

[Tudor]

I am a total LW fanatic.
Still I use Maya at work.
Both programs have weaknessess and strenghts.
What you concider to be a weakness or strenght may very well depend on how you tend to attack a problem.

I Nowdays find myslelf modeling in LW, not just because it is a great tool for modeling, but mostly because I am so used to it. The tools I use in LW exist in Maya aswell. Split poly-add edges. append to polygon - extender. Bascially all programs are the same. Different GUI but the same functions in all programs.
I love LW. Other ppl at the office love Max or Maya. I dont care what they use as long as they produce great stuff.

Try them both (or.. ehh.. try the big four. all of them actually). We have no clue as to how you work and what you will feel comfortable with.

[-wT-]

I think CIM's being abit harsh at Maya. And think about it CIM, I could come to the LightWave forum and laugh at you and show the http://www.lightwave3d.com/product/projects_list.html link and say "If you look at alot of projects using LightWave, you'll see that Maya is used for the animations as well as alot of other things like dynamics and so on.", don't you agree? :)
Ok that sounds a bit too "flame -like", sorry about that, think about that as a "joke", didn't mean to laugh at you or anything!


And back to the topic. While I was getting my first touches to 3D with Max, all I did was download plugins and play with those, and I never really modelled anything with Max. After jumping to Maya, I can't say there would be any plugins like Max had, that I would just love to get, except renderers (Mental Ray, Renderman(, Arete DNT)) and exporter/importer (Polytrans). All the other "plugins" are just scripts, and doesn't really do anything as big as any of Max's plugins, so basicully if I model/animate anything in Maya, I will always do it with the basic set of tools Maya came. I'm pleased with it. Sure it will take it's time, and to me the polygon modelling semed very buggy and weird with all the weird errors I got with bad booleans and such, but after practicing, I really can't understand how I got such problems in the first place :)

So, yeah. If you feel like it, you don't have to run any other 3D progies, Maya can (to me) make anything you want... maybe some stuff slower than with other plugins, but I'm pretty sure there's a task you could do with Maya?

[flamedevil]

I started learn 3d with 3dsmax but i was learning slowwwwwly.
I didn't really learn a lot .

When i knew Maya , it was totally different .

Now I really appreciate to work on 3d models and in more i learn very fast .
I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE MAYAAAAAAAA .

[fla5hdrunk]

1st of all im tryin to expand my 3d abilitys. now i know much about effects, but i want to learn modeling. 1st synthetics, then organics

im very young: 17years, so im really just learning

one of my problem in max is that nurbs arent correctly computed, there are many problems like this which i only can fix by using tricks and this breakes my creativity

@flamedevil
i didnt understand you. ive got maya3.0 (old?) and i dont know how to bend an object. sure max is more simple, but in maya i miss some basic functions and object converting (max -> maya) isnt a solution, i think

[alexx]

hey all,

i am doing 3d stuff since quite some days and during my education i stumbled over a lot of 3d packages including lightwave, 3ds max (even the old 3d studion versions 3 and 4), softimage and finally maya.

in all the packages was very cool stuff and very poor stuff.
i dont think it is a matter of which one is better than the other. it is more the point: which is the most comfortable for ME.
the next thing is that i think you have to chose one product at one day. if you want to be good (sorry for controverting that public oppinion) you have to know the tool you are working with. saying it is the artist and not the tool is only half true. a brilliant artist wont be able doing perfect pictures with a tool that he only knows a bit. knowing your 3d package well helps a lot.

for me as a TD maya is my tool of choice since it was the first one with scripting abilities in such a huge range. if i wuold have to start from scratch now i might choose another package but now i know maya so well that i dont want to since a lot of my knowledge would be lost.

so to the conclusion: all 3d progs have strength and weaknesses.. choose whatever you like most and even if it is only the nice round buttons. :)
they are all good!

cheers

alexx:wavey:

[flamedevil]

hey fla5hdrunk ,

First of all , i'm 17 years old too :) and i'm learning too .
I think all artists learn during them artist life ...

About maya :

Maya 3 is the old version .
I tell you a good advice : You should look in the help.

And familiarize you with the interface .
USE YOUR KEYBOARD AND MOUSE !

Try : Create a nurbs sphere and select it .
Now press Q , W , E , R , T
It's the different way to move , rotate , scale...

Use the attribute editor to modify parameters of your sphere , shader...

In short, explore the software.

I hope i help you :shrug:

[raffael3d]

yeah and shortcuts like 3, 4 or 5 you need also a lot, but you can also edit the shortcuts.

alexx: yeah you are right, it's the question: which one suits you best. I have LW, maya and Softimage3D and XSI experience. So far I can say that XSI seems to be the package of the future, but so far Maya has still more features, what is great, but you need also be able to use them!
Most beginners just want the "best" package and learn that. I don't think that this is a goood idea. Rather learn quickly an easier package, understand the principles and after that every package is much easier to learn, but that's just me.

[SheepFactory]

Originally posted by CIM
Maya is an over-hyped, mediocure high-end program. While it has great animation, scripting, and dynamics tools, the rest of the program is somewhat lacking.

Professional Maya users generally look to the power of Lightwave when modeling, rendering, and surfacing. For some time now, Maya has been known as a plugin for Lightwave.



Oh Yeah!?

Cim you dont have a clue. Your posts show how much you lack knowledge.

LW is by all means a great package.

But if you download the poly power tools and the game pack scripts to maya (which are free , so dont give us your favorite "out of the box" speech) Its about all you need for poly modelling.

As for maya being a plugin for LW , sheeesh yeah right.

I suggest you do some research before posting. you sound like a used car salesman.

A|i

[Jhonus]

Originally posted by CIM
For some time now, Maya has been known as a plugin for Lightwave.


IMO IMO IMO IMO IMO IMO IMO IMO

You left those out, so I added some for you.

[-wT-]

Originally posted by fla5hdrunk
...
i didnt understand you. ive got maya3.0 (old?) and i dont know how to bend an object. sure max is more simple, but in maya i miss some basic functions and object converting (max -> maya) isnt a solution, i think

Ok to bend stuff, you can make a lattice over the object, and move the lattice points. You can find the lattice somewhere from the animation menus, can't remember where exactly as I haven't got Maya open right now, and most of the stuff come out as a reflex so I never really can't explain anything if I haven't seen it done by me atleast once ;) :scream:

If you need any other "basic functions" explained, feel free to ask us :)

[Solesurvivor]

But if you download the poly power tools and the game pack scripts to maya (which are free , so dont give us your favorite "out of the box" speech) Its about all you need for poly modelling.

where can you got the poly power tools pack??

And to CIM, i know a lightwave users who has downloaded a plugin for LW which had the same effect as the maya modeling tools... don't ask me which one , cuz i don't know ...

[-wT-]

Solesurvivor: http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/Tmpl/Maya/html/index.jhtml?page=/en/Community/Download/plug_ins/maya_nt/maya_nt.html
Remember, aliaswavefront.com is your friend ;)

[Solesurvivor]

thnx -wT- :thumbsup:

[flamedevil]

HEY GUYS ,

the maya cd 2 and 3 are excellent !
they content tutorials , examples , lessons ...
really cool !

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