Im planning to switch to Blender, when its offers more import/export options to other softwares. I was going to use MayaLT, but I dont like the idea of subscription, even if the fee is very small. And the sculpting in Maya 2016 tool didnt impress me much as I have hoped for. The sulpting tool in Blender works much better. Blender have alot of tutorials and EPIC even made a Twitch stream for the Blender and UE4 workflow, watch it here: ?v=Ayp1lof0RJU
Of course you can, a skilled artist can produce good work in any of those programs, and 3ds and Maya are standard for the industry so of course it can do whatever is needed.
Sorry to bump an old thread, but I was hoping current Blender users could clarify whether (or not) there are still issues associated with FBX exporting/importing? Previously, I opted to go with Maya, since it appeared to be the preferred choice of Epic, but I’m looking to reduce costs wherever possible.
I agree with this, and I think this is an important post you made because me as a person starting out new, would you believe I have spent 3 days researching this and have not made a decision as to what 3D software to use? who would have thought this decision would be so hard. There is something at the back of my head ringing asking the question, these people using etc and are stuck with it because they brain has been wired in this way to use and can’t let their years of learning go to waste.
What would these people do if they could go back in time? what would they do if they knew back then what they know now?
And the answers always seem to be MAYA or Blender.
Though I would add the easiest and most intuitive piece of German Engineering in 3D modeling is Cinema 4D. Its unbelievable what Maxon has been able to do with C4D. I tried a trial version of MAYA 2016 but it looks so complex when compared to Cinema 4D I can do so much so easy in C4D AND REMEMBER what I did and how I did it aswell.
Learning C4D is so incredibly easy. Not to mention it never crashes that has to be the BMW Engineering of software.
But one thing that should be noted, for some weird and unknown reason, 3DS is the only Autodesk software that comes with IRAY built in. There is no other way to get CUDA rendering same with $3500 Cinema 4D no cuda rendering.
But just imagine that a free software like Blender actually comes with built in CUDA rendering AND its more stable than Iray Render for Cinema 4D. I have tested rendering a Car Project in Blender with both CUDA GPU render and the default CPU render. The difference is 50 seconds vs 6 minutes. Thats how blazing fast CUDA rendering actually is.
And just imagine Blender is free? my goodness.
Only downside to Blender is the UI (ICONS) looks sh!tty, the UI is fantastic in Blender these days but the actual icons where you do like say select a Cone or Cube looks very sh!tty. The colors are bad however this can be greatly fixed by simply downloading a Theme for Blender that changes the UI colors.
You cannot change the UI icons but yeah cosmetic part of Blender’s UI is ****** sadly. Cinema 4D has the most beautiful UI Icons they are very LARGE aswell. UI icons have Massive, colorful, brilliant Artwork in C4D compared to other software.
Huge Updates in Maya LT 2017 animation pipeline and Unreal Exporter tools built in for $30 a month and you get Stingray too. “yeah I know” But still as a game artist Maya is the Standard is for architects. Get the trial and check it out.
Just my two cents on this:
I worked around 20 years with 3Ds (former 3D Studio)
Since about 6 month, I switched to MODO.
The workflow is superior to everything I have seen so far. With an adjustment phase of two weks I was already more productive than I could ever been with .
And Modo is also really affordable. A buy on steam (no rental licensing scheme) is about 200 bucks.
You can also get it as a bundle with MARI, a texturing tool. Pretty much like substance, just better 
Just try out the 30 day free trial 
A youtuber named Stammbach makes awesome tutorials that help you get going.
Cheers,
Klaus