i know a lot of people are gonna say what a stupid topic and its the guys second post. but hear me out. until recently i was using Maya and i loved it BUT.

i was working with Maya for 3 years and was really used to it being very buggy but i always know how to go around them. but Maya did something that really pissed me off excuse my language but it really did something it shouldn’t have. i was working on an animation project for 3 month i had an environment made named arranged very well in the outliner no history + 2 character made rigged beautifully with facial expressions and nice textures. all objects name all referenced in a very neat file arrangement and animated in a with hard work for 2 weeks. it was my 3 year final project and at the end it had this ultra bad bug that what ever i did i couldn’t fix it it would not render every thing was there but it would say render manager not found and there were no render options and the render command wouldn’t do anything. after 2 weeks of hard rebuilding, formating the computer, re installing, re routing files, re doing most of the stuff it still didn’t work. and i had to submit a playblast for my 3rd year project cause Maya failed on me.

things i found out through an intense use of my in 3 years it has lots of bugs which could just not be there. like really stupid ones that sometimes when you restart the program they go away.

it is painfully hard to manage a full project all by yourself. because each section of Maya is so manual or lets say customizable that one person could really get into deeply but really hard for one person to say “hey lets just get a nice render for my animation”. for example im an animator i really don’t want to bother myself and learn lighting and rendering that deeply, i want to have some options which i play with to get a nice render and 3d studio max gives me that. because i could spend more time on animating than on lighting but not sacrifice quality.

but 3d studio max gives you full control and helps you with your projects with automations and summarized options but also gives you the freedom to really get into your area of expertise and not have to worry about bugs and areas that you want to save time on.  therefore for a one man/woman job 3d studio max is loads better in terms of reliable results.

i know this fact has been debated a lot and Maya fans are thinking “what is he talking about Maya doesn’t do that” well for you who is a pro at all areas of Maya and find it extremely easy to use for you its better, but my point of view is for a person who is a beginner in 3d , 3DS max is the way to go.

Maya: very flexible, fantastic for design teams
3d studio max: fantastic for one man/woman projects.
XSI: the interface holds you back but its very similar to 3d studio max

here is my thought on the matter after using Maya for 3 years and max for 1 year and some.

Max does the same really… I had a 3 week project screwed, with 12 cars and a parking lot, because of max.

Max users also complain about crashes, and weird stupid bugs, not to talk about the “patchwork” way it’s updated (Throw in feature, leave the old stuff alone),
and an old unstable core etc.

I don’t think there’s any of the 3d packages out there that DON’T crash…
So what is best, even for the individual person, is really just a “matter of religion” so to say.
I know a few people who find 3ds max painfully badly put together, and love Maya, and the same with the other way around.

So it’s a question of what you feel “at home” in…

THis (3Ds Vs Maya) was hot button (hot head) tropic. Since AD brough, no one care about it any more. Is it good or bad?

Check this out:
http://area.autodesk.com/for...s-max-moved-to-off-topic/

22in Samsung T220 flatscreen and 17in. Dual Setup
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 2.7 Ghz
4gb DDR2
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
Wacom Intuos 3 Tablet and Pen
Windows Vista Home Premium
Maya 2008 Unlimited
Combustion 2008
Photoshop CS4 Extended
Cleaner XL

steal my spotlight would you?
http://area.autodesk.com/for...s-max-moved-to-off-topic/

Maya :D

I know that over six months has gone by since the last response, but I’m a single user having used max for a little less than a year. It crashes often—mostly unprovoked—as far as I can tell. At first, I sent in reports, but never got a response. I then started sending reports with a few choice words to see if it would make any difference. It didn’t. My conclusion—Autodesk has such a large customer base, that the automatically-generated reports of crashes just might get fixed in the next version. So using max 2008 just might have problems fixed in max 2009.  I don’t know if Autodesk supports Maya any better than they support Max, but if it weren’t for this forum I would be doing something else.

I have asked the question about which is best for me - max or maya - and the answer is usually personal preference. Although I’ve heard that max is better for gaming than maya and maya is better for film, unless something mind-boggling comes along, it’s max for me. Besides, even with the crashing, I’m having fun.

Bardipper
3ds Max 2011 (64-Bit)
(2) Intel Xeon W5590 @ 3.33GHz
Windows 7
12GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800

I’ve been sending in error reports for years.
Never got a response back, but then again I never expected to get a response back.

I sent them in to help improve the software.
The more times an identifiable occurrence is reported, the more likely it is to be fixed.

If my problem is only my problem, out of 300k users, not much chance of it being addressed.
But if my problem is common to a significant percentage of customers, it may be fixed.

Yes, if you are not using the latest version, a Service Pack fix is not likely.

Support through Autodesk, past the initial 30 days, has always been available. But you need to pay for it.

Tim Wilbers [FA]

College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Visual Arts
University of Dayton
http://www.udayton.edu/
3ds Max: 7.5, 8, 9, 2008, 2009, 2010