Hello this is for all of the people who model things for the marketplace. Should I cave and buy Maya LT it has all of the modeling functions I need. I currently have the student version of Maya but I of course can’t use that or have the money to buy it but the LT version is cheap and affordable. Do you think that is the better rout since I can render in Keyshot, Unreal, and other rendering engines rather than learning blender? A whole new program and have to start from scratch again?
In my opinion, it’s more about what you feel most comfortable with that can produce the most content. Which out of the two programs give you faster workflow, and which program feel can grasp easier. Also, do note that LT has a poly limit of 250 000 maybe not too much of an issue but still a limit. At the end of the day, choice leads down to industry standard, or budget.
If you switch to Blender you will not start from scratch since you already know the terminology but your workflow will take a massive hit in the first few weeks of learning a new program.
In my opinion it is a good idea to be flexible when it comes to picking up a new program and not get stuck in the same program that you where initially introduced to.
If you only do 3d models and don’t do rigging or animation I would recommend that you pick up Blender. Blender is light-weight yet professional and you will never have to deal with subscriptions or DRM troubleshooting.
Don’t forget that there are other paid and well supported modeling programs out there like Modo by Foundry.
The Polygon count limitation does not apply to
Send To Unity, or
Send To Unreal.
I also know 3DS Max and I know I can set up Blender with Maya Shortcuts as well but I will be making game assets so I will have to do some rigging and animation as well which is why I was leaning more towards Maya LT rather than blender and I will be sending things straight to Unreal or Unity as well so I wasn’t too worried about the poly count limit because I could just export out of Unreal if I needed to get it into another program with a high poly count.
If you are planning on importing or exporting to the epic mannequin, I would say use Maya LT with AdvancedSkeleton.
Otherwise, they are both good choices (and Blender is free)
Thank you everyone for your input and info. I have decided to go with Maya LT as I will be making stuff for specifically Unreal and Unity. I will learn blender on the side as time goes on just in the off chance I don’t have access to Maya LT in the future but my main focus will be on LT and Unreal. Thank you everyone!