Fantastic.
maya wins in everything in my opinion; its a full production software, however is capable as well, its down to the users experience, i suggest you try out both and see what works well for you 
I’ve been using since it was a DOS program. I’ve used it because I’ve had to use it and I still don’t like it. Sure it has more modelling features that can make it easier, but you can still do it all in Maya. If I had to choose one package to buy and use as a new user… I would go with Maya. With Maya you can use the UE4 Character Rigging and Animation plugin as well as it’s industry proven animation features. There are far more Video tutorials (e.g Digital Tutors) on Maya than and older plugins for Maya tend to work with newer versions of Maya, you don’t find that with .
I prefer Cinema 4D than either of them. A more sensible GUI and far easier to use…it never crashes on me (that’s German engineering for you)
For years was better for games with all the 3rd party support than maya but now maya is killing it. And I dont feel autodesk will kill off Maya but rather , Dont get me wrong I hope they dont but after what happened to XSI you never know. Maya seems the safer choice given all the attention from this release and hope to see soon project skyline.
But at the end of the day it comes down to what car you like and how it functions your still going to get from A to Z.
I agree lol Cinema 4D is way easier and the UI is amazing…I tried them all. Maya makes modeling take to long with all the PANELS!! And is awful with PANELS and moving around in the view! Blender well…its free…thats all that its good at…C4D is Panel free and viewports are simple to move around in…
I don’t know why but Maya’s interface makes me depressed. I mean seriously depressed but UV mapping is godsend compared to soft I use for modelling/animation (c4d)
Personaly, I feel Maya to be the more free/faster organic feeling 3d package with less " blocking workflows whick 3dsmax and modo share eg. going in and out of a poly object adding modifiers etc…
Having been grounded and created specificaly for VFX and Animation and 3d characters rather than CAD style modeling and architectural precision, I feel Maya is less inhibitive and more artist friendly with a practical layout based on common workflows. Its “gui” less work flow using the hot box and contextual menus ( cntrl right click, shift right click) to be significantly faster to model esp with the repeat last tool or command hotkeys.
Most people say there is more modeling tools in 3dsmax which is not entirely true . Maya has a few more ( including the nurbs to poly workflows, paintfx to poly workflows etc…)
The new Unfold uv algorithim is faster and produces a better result than pelt in 3ds
visual support for multi uv patches/tiles is better.
In fact the new uv window is much more evolved with fantastic visual feedback ,options and control. ( and you dont need a modifier to see or edit uv’s)
I find its layout tools far more intuitive , having the power of a great level design tool.
In large to small production is where Maya shines over 3ds , with its ease of customization and “box” like api.
Most importantly I prefer to have a complete package at my disposal and not rely on plugins like you have to with 3ds , with fur / hair ( xgen / maya hair) cloth and Nparticles (a huge leap away from 3ds maxsparticles), maya fliuds and bifrost.
Animation retargeting , fbik, rigging and skinning tools are all superior to 3ds . The only thing has is the cat rig ( but thats a closed framework system that not recomended for anything other than smaller contained workflows.
3ds is fantastic package for the beginner to freelancer with great resources available out there but you may hit a roof one day. Saying that so much great work has been produced with it ( 3ds ) , similar to Maya.
But if you learn Maya , you will inevitably be working in a more exposed “true” 3d workflow, less push button prefigured approach like in 3dsmax where you learn the software more than real “3d”.
I have been and art director in both film and games and a practising digital artist for over 15 years now, before that a fine artist (sculpture painting). I have also been teaching both programs ( since 2006). We currently teach only 3ds for beginners only and architectural classes and then jump into Maya for the Advanced levels in film/vfx animation and games.
In the end people say its not the tools its the artist.
But in the professional world, the best artists ( like a tradesman) use the best tools for the Job.
It seems to me you might not understand all that well, the modifier system is something that’s very useful and is one of the big advantages. And one of the things that people have chosen for is the ability to customize.
There’s nothing serious that 3ds is lacking as a 3D program, it sounds ridiculous to say that Maya is a “true” 3D workflow and that you can’t do real 3D with 3ds . There’s an immense amount of work done in 3ds that proves you wrong. There’s a few things it doesn’t have that you have to buy plugins for, but that’s the same with Maya.
That doesn’t matter for game development because none of those things can be used with games.
3ds /
Thank you for your comments on my post. Its always good to hear other’s perspectives on what your opinion is.
In the interests of healthy,productive online debate;
I equally could say something to that effect on your understanding of Maya judging by your reply but I wont because I don’t know that or you.
I have been using it (3dsmax) in production since 2006, I have setup and pipelines around the program for with a minimum of 50 content staff,
across 3 continents for an MMO, so you would be wrong.
There is Nothing wrong with modifiers, alot of programs uses that concept esp for procedural content, I was referring to going in and out of a 3d object
rather than just accessing and editing what ever you want in a scene faster with a click.
I guess you didn’t read the part where i said this; “Saying that so much great work has been produced with it ( 3ds ) , similar to Maya.”
When I said “true 3d” It was in in the context that Maya is more exposed under the “hood” and that “hood” is open for artists to work in everyday. it has
more room with a transparent architecture linking to other engines, Renderers, APIs etc…
Its language and naming design reflects common graphical programming concepts not hiding anything with “custom” names to make it fluffier, so most
*importantly *and the reason for this post to assist the OP, for a young artist to be reared in such an environment is beneficial from an art
directors and programming perspective.
Yes it may be bombarding at first, but the benefits far outweigh the initial difficulty.
I never said 3dsmax wasn’t real 3D and never will,
…to suggest I would say that. I was
referring to the amount of perspective you gain with a comprehensive experience.
I guess I had better tell the marketing art ,Cinematic and tools Development guys the bad news… Thanks for your insight.
There’s super easy to use and customize quad menus, or the fully customizable keyboard shortcuts. Editing an object is as easy as it is in Maya.
In what way is Maya more exposed under the hood? And how is that helpful for artists? And how does that relate to being able to make “true” 3D?
Given you know how much work has been done with 3ds , you must know that’s it’s perfectly capable of doing work in all the areas that Maya can, by professional . And under the “hood”–well it’s been chosen because of how useful it is under the hood, maxscript, plugins, even Python now. Even someone who isn’t a programmer can take advantage of all the excellent free scripts out there.
That doesn’t really fall under the area of game development, that would be under something like VFX. For the actual development of the game, there’s no need to use particles, fluids, hair, and cloth systems that are included in the program because the game engines don’t support them. Even in that area, is quite popular with like Blur, and while you do have to buy some extra plugins, people use plugins to do that type of thing with Maya as well–in you might buy FumeFX and Vray, Maya you might buy Vray/Arnold, Yeti, or even FumeFX as well.
" if you just pay for a yearly subscription, it’ll cost you less to stay up to date, and if you don’t renew it, you still get to keep the software at what ever version you’re at when the sub ends."
Really? I’ve been looking for this in the license, but it doesn’t mention that I can keep the software with this plan. I’m not asking you to do the googling instead of me, but can you please show me that part of the license where it is mentioned? I can’t find it anywhere and I’d like to make sure of this information before I start an annual subscription.
Thanks.
When I was talking to Autodesk customer service, they said that if you cancel maintenance subscription, you go back to the original version of the software that you paid a perpetual license for. For example: if you have 3ds 2014, and you are on maintenance subscription and currently you are using 3ds 2016, if you cancel you will no longer be able to use 3ds 2016 but instead can only use 3ds 2014. They could have been wrong in what they told me, Customer service doesn’t always know everything about the terms of licenses, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it is truly that way.
If you’re on regular subscription (without paying for a perpetual license) then when you cancel you have nothing.
UV mapping is probably one of the easiest and quickest parts of my workflow. I mark where I want seams in my modeling application, import the model into 3d Coat, mark seams and hit unwrap, export back to my 3d application. Fix and straighten anything I don’t like, and pack the UVs in IPackThat. I maybe spend 20-30 minutes using that process.
Maya and Softimage actually have integrated a really good UV unwrapping tool (from the Unfold3D software). Pretty much as long as you have enough seams it can flatten it out with minimal distortion and no overlapping, with also good packing.
Thank you!
Try looking into the Maya bonus tools for the auto-unwrap tool. It will greatly simplify the back and forth process and works much like Roadkill mentioned earlier. I also heavily use Ninja UV for any of my UV editing. It is great at packing and scaling shells to all be the same size. The ability to straighten entire shells on certain axis and stack over is a plus as well. Used it on this picture. I have unwrapped thousands of models and used Roadkill before the auto unwrap tool they implemented. For you can use TexTools as well. It integrates Roadkill into the UV editor and advanced functionality. For organics I still use Headus. The bloat and pelt mapping it has it stop notch. ZBrush to me is just too much of a process and I am picky on my shells and like edge loop selection in a standard interface. Apples and oranges really.
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Maya is used in lots of . And there is Maya for Mac OS. So I would say, use Maya, but learn 3Ds too, just in case. It’s very popular as well, just not on Mac.
Why not Modo? It’s quickly gaming popularity among game artists.
He did say pick between or Maya 
If I had to pick, I’d pick Maya it gets alot of love from Autodesk and seem like more R&D is going toward it.