maya was first 3D package I started to learn. as I´m on practical work with a firm working with max only I will have to get comfortable with this package too. basically I think it´s not that bad having knowledge of more than one software package.

one thing I heared about max in comparison to maya tho is about the memory management. working with more than few 100,000 quads in the perspective panel slows down max in a perceptible way, despite your amount of RAM, due to its core architecture which is said to be still quite the same as in the beginning. when was max first time published? (don´t know if true - I was just told)

btw people, learn zBrush! this is a real enhencement to maya!

maya is also kinda slow when we add many poly. i thinks its all plugins and mel scripts which are loaded makes it slow. if it is that, anyway to disable them?

i've heard of zbrush, is it good in modelling , rendering....?

zBrush is a complete different approach to 3D. it is a compound of 3D and 2D giving you 2.5D results. workplace is a canvas not a 3D view port, so you can import geometry, select it as a tool and paint it on the canvas. there you add or subtract z depth. I use it for creating displacement maps. zBrush is a mighty tool for detail.

I don't find it slower as u said. I rarely use the buttons, Its all down to the hotkeys now. I think if u're one for pushing buttons than maybe max might be slower in that sence. Rendering in max is pretty smooth. Just the default one that loads up with max compared with maya default one. In max it renders a spere in a second and its practically smooth, no alias or anything. Maya it takes a few seconds and I get a lot of aliasing. This is my pc. Thou its hardly anything really to compare both softwars with. lol

I have to disagree there I don't think there is a limit to what max can do. I think it is possible to completly master maya or max. Maybe not CG in general thou. When it comes down to it is the technics that matters and ur imagination too.

Not too sure about that. The default scaline render might be just as good as mayas software one. And mental ray is inbedded in both.

what is 2.5D?

you can make 2d images but you can make 3d images in it too. henceforth-2.5d

thanks,
heres more
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.5-D

2.5D is more like being able to, in a sence, move object only in the Z axis while looking through the front view port. Horizontal being X and vertical being Y that is. Not sure if its the same in maya. So u could for instance have a house with a car infront of it, if u then stuck on a person to ur scene u'd be able to move the person behind the car but it would still be infront of the house. U couldn't turn the character a full 360 degrees to see the other side of it thou.

if interested just have a look at http://pixologic.com

or watch those demo videos

http://pixologic.com/zbrush/media_links/movies2.html

the power of zBrush ->

http://206.145.80.239/zbc/showthread.php?t=3193

download the demo video and you will see! it made me want to uninstall maya and never model with it again. na, just kidding.

can we export our modells from zbrush to maya to make it better :cool:

Yeah u can but the models come back with some crazy polygon counts.. well that happens for me anyways.

Great tool for detail tho.