MR MTMKINLEY...... SHOULD I GO AHEAD ????????
 

Hello everyone at SM. And hello to our senior brother Mr MKINLEY!!

Well Sir, being ur sincere fan of all your highly well explained and nicely detailed tutorials, i have finally come to you for some advice.

Sir, am 28 yrs old total newbie in 3d modelling and texturing using Maya. I did a small course of Maya here in India (some 3 to 4 years back) and since then am trying my hand on maya continously to refine myself to come up with realistic looking, well textured, highly detailed 3d models !!

But, one major problem a person faces when studying/ learning and working on any 3d software on his own is LACK OF MOTIVATION!!! Since an individual is never under any specific class (of a college or 3d school), so he/she lacks a competitve enviorment which he/she might get from the fellow students of his/her class (if studying in a particular school or college). So i guess in some way or the other it is a demotivating factor which consistently works against one's performance and generates frustrations at regular intervals! :headbang: And so it becomes difficult to maintain a strict discipline to work!

But am learning to push myself to achieve my goal time and again (though at many times i fall down and get diverted from my aim).

ANyway, those were my general thoughts. Actually in a couple of weeks, am planning to join a discreet authorised center here in India which teaches 3dsdtudio max and combustion. The course is for about 3500$ (when converted to US currency) and is for 6 months.

The reason am planning to join it is because there is a whole lot of scope for 3d max artists here in India! And more studios and companies are using max rather than maya. So finally it opens up more doors for me to find a nice job! But i feel extremely panicy as from the last 4 years i have spent working on Maya and exploring all its tools, and now i feel extremely comfortable in building a model in maya !! U can call it that as if my hand is now adjusted to it. And now if i start all afreash in learning max, i FEAR THAT I MIGHT GET CONFUSED BY USING ITS TOOLS AND MIXING IT UP WITH THE FUNCTIONALITIES OF MAYA!. I mean wont it jumble up my previous knowledge of maya????

For instance lets say that "Extrude" in maya if different than in "Max" in many ways. And while i try to learn the applications of it in Maxx, i might get jumbled up by relating it (unconsiously to the one in maya :eek: ). I hope u are able to get what i mean.

So i just wanted to share this apprehension with a state-of-the-art artist like you who is much more experienced and senior (in both of these industry leading softwares), to advice me regarding this. So kindly project your views andf guide me as to whether is it a wise step if i go ahead with learning a new software (whose functions and applications is more or less the same to the software i already know?? ).

Would be eagerly waiting for ur reply Sir.

[ please, if other members can do me a favour by not replying to this thread instantly, as am eagerly seeking a first reply from Mr. MKINLEY. ]

with lots of wishes and luck to everyone at SM, :bow:
peace and happiness,
Gautam.

First of all, I'm flattered that you'd take such stock in my opinions, but don't deny others from helping you out as well!

You can never know enough! It is extremely good of you to be familiar with more than one application, as as you say... people use more than one and it's better to not limit your career prospects.

Being familiar with Maya will make learning Max much easier, although you will get frustrated now and then because of what you perceive as limitations of Max. I'm sure anyone who learns Max first finds Maya just as frustrating.

What do you want to say with frustratin'?

I'd say learn them both. I can now find my way through maya, max and XSI with no trouble. You'll only want to smash your computer up constantly for the first week or two.