Hey Guys!
I want to begin modeling my own stuff (Objects, Characters…) so can you tell me if its better to use Maya or 3ds Max with the UE4?
Where is the workflow and the Export options better.
Can i do all stuff in Maya/3dsMax or is there a nother programm for more details like zBrush?
Hope you can help me guys 
Sorry for my bad english
You can do whatever you want with both Maya and 3ds Max. They are both the top modeling and animation tools out there.
There is also Blender which is free.
My advice, is to master one of them and then the others depending on your professional goals.
yeh both of them are very good, however as an opinion i would say Maya, not Maya LT if your into indie and stuff, also there’s also other problems with it. Maya is got that A.R.T feature that comes along with UE4 which is a huge time saver and an awesome tool. Zbrush is a must because its just awesome for any type of modelling. I would say personally master Maya and Zbrush and your set to make AAA games! 
watching this also for feedback, curious about using z brush over mud box, is the pipeline still smooth in character creation, also is Maya going to work well to create structures etc or would max be a better option ? we currently have the creation suite but can purchase z brush if needed. sorry if any of the questions seem a bit basic but really trying to get a good handle on which product to push the hardest on our staff. thanks in advance
Why not Maya LT?
[QUOTE=;12315]
watching this also for feedback, curious about using z brush over mud box, is the pipeline still smooth in character creation, also is Maya going to work well to create structures etc or would max be a better option ? we currently have the creation suite but can purchase z brush if needed. sorry if any of the questions seem a bit basic but really trying to get a good handle on which product to push the hardest on our staff. thanks in advance
Mudbox is very easy to use, especially if you’re used to programs like Maya or 3ds Max, it also has very good texture painting tools. The only downside is that it does not have nearly the capability of Zbrush, if you are serious about sculpting then it’s best to learn Zbrush in the long run, but if you only do sculpting from time to time and want something easy to use then Mudbox is a good choice.
[QUOTE=AlphaSierra216;12318]
Why not Maya LT?
Maya LT is missing some features of Maya that people could really use. For what it does it’s kind of expensive.
As far as Maya Vs. 3ds Max I think 3ds Max has better modeling tools, but Maya has better animation tools–that’s the important differences as far as developing for games goes.
As a huge Blender fanboy, use it, it has everything you need for games(max and maya are better on studios for animations and things like that) . For high resolution sculpting, Zbrush no doubt
[QUOTE=darthviper107;12342]
Maya LT is missing some features of Maya that people could really use. For what it does it’s kind of expensive.
Like what?
I was planning on getting it but if things I need are missing…
Maya was more my style. 3d Studio Max just makes me frustrated every time I use it. Try out both and use whichever you feel more comfortable with.
[QUOTE=AlphaSierra216;12352]
Like what?
I was planning on getting it but if things I need are missing…
Usually Maya LT has all you need for game asset creation. Turtle baking, modeling, rigging and animation, Human IK.
It mostly lacks things that are crucial for movie productions, such as physics simulations, mental ray, spline IK’s, animation layers. And you get a poly cap of 60K polygons (that may change for UE4 exporting, like Unity)
But no real roadblocks for a game artist.
I wouldn’t buy a full $5000 Autodesk suite, if you can get way cheaper alternatives, like Blender, Modo, or Maya LT.
Blender is a top-dog and very powerful. I knew zero about 3d modeling, but I check out a book on Blender form my local lib and banged my head against it for a few days until I got the basics (i’m a programmer, just wanted the basics). The art-skills you learn in Blender will transfer over to any modeling program you use. The workflow might be a bit different, the hotkey for dragging vectors or w/e, but the actual skills you learn for modeling will be similar if not the same. Same thing for animation, UV mapping, texture painting, whatever.
If money isn’t an issue Maya is defiantly the best, even better than Max if you’re doing any kind of animation (Max is better for say, terrain or architecture), but don’t get the student version and think you can put your models up online, you don’t own anything you create with the student version and you could get people screwed over if they think they have a license to use that artwork. Blender is GPL software, but the copyleft of the GPL does not apply to art created with Blender, only the program itself. Also, when you buy a license for Maya I believe it’s only good for 3 years, at which time you must re-license to continue to purchase commercial software (although I may be wrong, it may just be 3 years of updates).
Start with Blender, once you’ve made some money with it switch to Maya. Chances are you won’t be able to appreciate the benefits of it until you’ve developed some talent anyway, and like I said, the hand-modeling skills and many technicalities of 3d modeling carry over to any 3d program you use, just like texturing or layer-based-editing in GIMP and Photoshop are different, but much the same.
I would also suggest to get/learn Inkscape unless you already have Illustrator. Inkscape is a great 2d vector drawing program, and you can quickly import the SVG files you produce into Blender or any 3d program as part of or the basis of a 3d model. The amount of work-scenarios you would use Inkscape or Illustrator image as part of a 3d model may be limited, but you’ll be glad you learned Inkscape especially if you’re modeling text. Just put “inkscape blender import” into Google, many examples of work using those two programs. Inkscape is free btw.
Krita is another good art related program, especially for texturing. Say you have a pressure pad, you could export a UV map to it and use a stylus to draw directly on your 3d image (via uv map). Cool stuff.
If you have the money it’s best to skip Blender and go straight to Max or Maya. And again, 3ds Max has the better modeling tools, based on experience, especially over Blender. I haven’t done enough animation to appreciate what Maya has to offer there.
As for the licenses for those programs, they are perpetual licenses. At the end of this year they will be getting rid of upgrade pricing so your only options then is to go on subscription or to pay full price for a new version. And at that point you would have to go on subscription if you intend to go to a new version within 6 years (subscription is $625, license is $3,675 so 6*$625=$3,750)
Another option is Modo, which is $1,500 and a very good modeler, not so good on the animation side though.
The 3 year license thing is for the student versions of Autodesk’s packages, which, as stated, you can’t use in game development anyway, I saw a post on the Area forums, someone asked if they could use assets created in a student version of 3ds in a Unity project they were going to release for free, and the answer was no.
And considering my student liscense of max 2012 expires this july, I too find myself in the need to investigate other alternatives, I do have Zbrush but still haven’t quite got to grips with it.
For animation, there is also Iclone, which, from what i’ve seen, is very good for animating complex rigs, including facial animation and blending, i have a copy of that and 3dxchange (file conversion package by the same developers) but haven’t tried them yet. Iclone, from what i saw in a tutorial, also auto-syncs and animates character facial rigs (if they have them) to audio tracks, and gives you full, realtime control over the rig. 3dxchange can also export to most 3d packages such as blender, max, maya, modo, c4d, Unity and UE4.
And considering the only other alternative for a high-grade animation package is motionbuilder, well, it’s a no-brainer really.
@Bleakwise, Interesting stuff about inkscape, not heard of that one.
[QUOTE=darthviper107;12548]
And again, 3ds Max has the better modeling tools, based on experience, especially over Blender.
Could you give us some examples?
I have very little experience with modeling and I am using Blender but I also want to have a look at 3ds max / maya at some point.
curious if anyone else has experience with iclone, first ive heard of it, looking to just get basics into unreal nothing real fancy, have maya but it is a bit daunting at least for now. was hoping to see a bit more on zbrush thinking about getting it. can the a.r.t. tools be circumvented to get animated charcaters in or is this just a bad idea in general ?
Zbrush supports a few file import/export formats, including native maya .ma files, there is also Goz (comes with zbrush) that works pretty much the same was as mudbox’s “go to max/maya/softimage” function. Upgrading to new version of zbrush when one is released is FREE for current zbrush users, so if you buy 4R6 now, when they release Zbrush 5 (or any future versions of 4), it won’t cost you a thing.
You don’t HAVE to use the A.R.T tools for maya if you don’t want to, you don’t have to ‘circumvent’ them.
thanks that helps get a little more of an understanding, piece by piece
[QUOTE=Anthony;12701]
Zbrush supports a few file import/export formats, including native maya .ma files, there is also Goz (comes with zbrush) that works pretty much the same was as mudbox’s “go to max/maya/softimage” function. Upgrading to new version of zbrush when one is released is FREE for current zbrush users, so if you buy 4R6 now, when they release Zbrush 5 (or any future versions of 4), it won’t cost you a thing.
You don’t HAVE to use the A.R.T tools for maya if you don’t want to, you don’t have to ‘circumvent’ them.
[QUOTE=maikklein;12674]
Could you give us some examples?
I have very little experience with modeling and I am using Blender but I also want to have a look at 3ds max / maya at some point.
These were originally a plugin called Polyboost, both Maya and Blender have been adding some of the tools here and there but the list is still better than what they offer. And that’s not counting all the modifiers you can use.
I was looking at digital tutors for 3ds max and maya to see how the instructors use the software and they are almost complete using the menus.
I know that you know the shortcuts for 80% of all actions but what about the other 20% do you need to go though menus or are the shorter ways to get to the action?
In blender it’s pretty neat, for example if I forgot the shortcut for subdivide then I just press W and I get a list of actions and subdivide is in it. Or if I completely forgot every key binding to it then I can always hit space and do a lazy search.
question: Maya Or 3dsMax?
answare: Blender