Maya or max?

[DEElekgolo]

Which tool is better and for what profession? There have been some debates on some other forums about this. So to settle some arguments lets have a vote on which tool is better.

[Disaster]

Maya for me. Maya can do in 1-2 steps what max can do in 3-4. Maya also has awesome fluid simulations, better nurbs modeling, better unwrapping, etc. F

Film/TV

[Inferno]

3ds max cause I mod halo right now and that's what I learned on so I like it.

[Reaper Man]

Maya, much more logical interface, just makes sense. Modeling is easy, you don't have to play around with different mesh types - a polygon is a polygon. As disaster said, you can (generally) do things faster in Maya. It's also great for animation.

[DEElekgolo]

3ds max for me. Best partical simulator, rendering, pelt mapping, nurbs. The works.

[killer9856]

Everyone says Maya is more useful and easier to get, but I like MAX.

[Con]

As far as Halo maps go, I use Maya for modeling and Max for texturing and exporting. If I could do max's jobs in Maya, I would, but there's no exporter as of yet. Like Reaper said, the interface is great since everything's layed out where you expect it to be. People are always arguing over poly and mesh in max, but in Maya theres no confusion.

In the big picture, 3ds max is used a lot for game design because it's pretty much the norm, although a lot of companies like Bungie are flexible:

Be fluent in 3D Max or Maya, Photoshop, Zbrush and/or mudbox.
Those are the requirements for a "3D Hard Surface Artist"
In the movie industry, Maya is preffered because it's great for animations.

[Roostervier]

I really can't decide. I'd learned how to use 3ds max first, but Maya's interface is so much more smooth (no modifiers and junk to deal with). 3ds max has it's pro's and con's, just as Maya does. What I'd say is, in terms of architectural modeling, or anything inorganic, max wins. In organic modeling and in interface/work flow, Maya wins.

[Advancebo]

Or anything super complex (bring out those pictures DEE) I would go with LightWave

[Kalub]

I'd say it depends on the situation, and I would side with Max because I can't be assed to learn Maya. :(

[klange]

Blender, tbh.

[Disaster]

Blender, tbh.
^ best free 3d modeling program eva :)

[Rentafence]

I've used both for long periods of time, and I prefer Max. The UI is just more comfortable for me.

[Corndogman]

I'd say it depends on the situation, and I would side with Max because I can't be assed to learn Maya. :(

^
Need to get motivated :(

[Donut]

to me its an issue of what i started with.
my first experience with 3d software was when the summer after 6th grade. i attended a "camp" for kids at my local college. i believe we used maya 7. i found it difficult to use and difficult to learn, but then again, i was like... 11
a little while later, i wanna say end of 7th grade, i started with gmax and got somewhat fluent in it. a year after gmax i moved to 3ds max. last summer i used maya 2008 at that same computer camp. it was alot esier to use compared to my first time, but i felt very resitricted by my lack of knowledge of the program.
point being, i think alot of it is to do with what program you really learned with.

[kid908]

As for me, I prefer Max because I'm more familiar with max and like the features it offers, one feature would be its interface. People may dislike the modifiers, but I've found them very useful. Maya interface is quite hard on me, I can't get used to it, but Maya fluid similations are excellent, actually it amazes me, and would love it in Max. Max isn't very good with organic structures, but, as stated before, an excellent architectural tool. This question is pretty much depending on your field of work really. Lightwave is also great for architectural creations and price is quite lower than Max.

[Phopojijo]

Here's the easy answer:

Whichever one you learned easier... should be the one you use.

Use Maya PLE (or gMax is you can still find it) and try making some simple things... see what you like better.

As for Maya's perks (my preferred application)... MELScript. Even if you don't write them... there's plenty of scripts which add new features. Two weeks after 3dsMax got Peltmapping... Maya had it third party for even old versions of Maya by creating a hacky little script which played with springs and the physics engine. For free.

There are some annoyances I encounter with it though, mostly involving precise transformations in multiple coordinate systems, and Booleans.

[paladin]

Both, but I a more proficient in 3ds max.

[nick3d]

Maya... tools are easier to access and also i learnt how to model using it.

3DS max seems a little bit too complex. i cant find the tools as easy than maya

[Zeph]

It really depends on what you want to do. Typically, Max is better for geometric purposes and Maya is more useful for making pretty pictures. You can still do the same thing in both, so it's just up to your preferences. With the Alias export format, you can pretty much move back and forth between the two seamlessly.

I personally hate maya. I just cant seem to get anything done. To be productive, you have to have the pictures representing the tools memorized. I'm very bad at that, so it takes me forever to find a tool in Maya. Add to that a tool could be in a submenu that's only accessible my clicking on another picture. In Max, everything is clearly found in one place and represented by text so it is simple to find what you're looking for.

[Phopojijo]

Zeph -- Use the Spacebar and make your own custom shelf (ctrl+shift+click)