If youre a penniless indie dev at the dawn of your career, it makes perfect sense to download blender and gimp and binge-watch youtube tutorials.
But if your plan is to work for the big studios on the major titles, then the simple fact is that there’s an industry here and that industry has standards. Literally everywhere that offers formal training will teach you how to use Maya because its the standard software package of the 3D video game industry. I really hope blender takes off and becomes the go-to package of the industry, but it will take years yet.
Sweet, pleased to hear it. In 6 years of freelance and contract work I can’t say I’ve had the same experience. A decent-sized studio will expect some Autodesk and Adobe experience at the very least, but if this isn’t the case in your experience, then I can respect that.
The author of the thread said he is making characters for his own projects. He pretty much fits into the definition, not necessarily penniless but still indie.
But if your plan is to work for the big studios on the major titles
Then you can forget about working for AAA studios for at least 5-10 years. It’s not that you learn Maya for a year and then get a job at CDPR. Artists with breathtaking portfolios struggle to find any permanent or long term contract positions for years.
As he already said, the author needs a tool to make characters for his own projects, not for AAA studios. Blender meets the requirements.
Even if your plan would be to get a job at AAA studio in 10 years - start your first year with Blender. Maya is a subscription based service and you don’t want to spend money while you are just studying concepts of modeling. After you get confident with making models - moving to Maya will be easy, as all modelling programs work by same principles.
I generally wouldn’t hire anyone using Maya or Max on freelance platforms like fiverr, because there is no way I can ensure that their license is not pirated.
I do assume that everyone who is not using Blender is a pirate, because this is the only way not to get in trouble. It is like with coronavirus - assume that everyone is infected and act accordingly. I can only see that an artist would use Maya if studio purchases a license for him, otherwise if he is a freelancer there is no reason for him to pay for Maya.
Reading all opinions with interest. Not a lot I can add to why Blender or Maya conversation but definitely taking notes.
My main goal is to create my own characters yes… eventually. Now - if I could end up working on a game development team… well that would be a dream for me. Got to be realistic about that though… may never happen.
Honestly - I’d subscribe to a cheaper version of Maya if common consensus was that it was worth it. It’s why I asked. Not fully penniless as it happens :-). But yes - if there’s no real advantage with any of the Maya subscriptions - at least in the beginning then that’s good to know. Again - it’s why I asked.
I guess I initially got fixed on Maya because a lot of the Epic dev streams and courses etc seem to reference Maya. A fair amount of you- tubers etc also seem to use Maya a lot. So I just leaned that way in the beginning.
Yeah you asked the right questions, but as I said, when people ask about 3D modeling software that isnt blender, theres always the peanut gallery that want to chime in and talk about blender. Sorry that that happened in your thread.
Maya is a good choice - its industry standard, its well-established among the widest portion of the community, it has the most support and resources, and as I said, every formal institution teaches Maya; not blender. Its ultimately your choice, but as I also said, Ive been around for a while and no mid- to high- end studio will give you the time of day unless you have at least some autodesk experience.
Again, Id like to reiterate that there is nothing wrong with blender. Learn it if you want to. But as I said, it simply is not industry standard software in the game design and 3D art industries; yet. It took me 2 years to get the training required to become industry-ready and then when I started getting contract work I was using pro maya licenses when I was on the clock.
At the end of the day, your deliverables are going to be fbx models and texture maps, in which case piracy isnt an issue - its only .mb and .ma files that will be protected, and even then in 6 years ive never had that issue with anyone elses files (and ive only ever used legit licenses). The people telling you that piracy is an issue with contract work are lying to you, and for freelance work it simply wont be an issue.
Again, before theres more attitude slung my way, blender is perfectly fine. Learn it if you want to. Realistically speaking, however, maya will remain industry standard for at least the next decade, and if you want to work on the triple-a titles, thats the software you want to know. In fact, even if you dont, you will 100% be confronted with jobs that require at least access and basic navigational skills of maya. Thats a thing that will happen if you work contract jobs. Theres literally no downside to learning how to use maya, even if your primary package is blender, but there is a downside to not knowing how to use maya.
All I can ask for are people’s God’s-Honest opinions and real world experiences here. And I think I have exactly that.
I’m extremely appreciative. I’d just never know otherwise & I hope others in the same position as me are also reading this. It takes those who know to guide others with what they know.
In the end I now know more than I did. So my thanks.
Good luck, man. My suggestion is as it was at the start of the thread - seek formal training. You’ll be given the tools to be industry-ready, and then you’ll see for yourself what’s needed of a pro. A random Epic thread can’t give you that.
edit: I feel like I should add that I use Maya and Blender each in my professional work. I dont have both feet on the Maya side of the court. Plus, I said this at the start of the thread and its 100% true: