to use or not to use
 

hey everyone
i am just wondering. i do all of my work in maya and is it good to try other programs like 3ds Max. i already went on to chat and recieved some coments by i just want your opinions as well.

thanks

In my opinion, it could never hurt to know as many different programs as possible. It just makes you that much more adaptable to any requirements a possible employer may have.

i agree, any more opinions?

I'd suggest to choose one program and stick with it until you feel you really know it's ins and outs. Then you can widen your horizon by trying out other packages too. Just my $0.02...

Yeah, I agree with that. all highend programs can pretty much do the same stuff.

Remember, though, that there's a good reason that more of the bigger studios are not using 3D Studio Max or Lightwave. These applications just don't have quite the depth of features or extensibility of Maya or Softimage. It used to be that the price difference was much wider because of this, but that's no longer the case.

That's not to say that great things haven't been done in those packages, even large, professional productions. It's just that Maya makes customization and development much simpler -- unlike 3DS Max, for example, plug-in development is infrequently something you have to do because MEL is better integrated into the package than MAXscript.

i would say if max and lightwave were programmable to the extent maya can be then they would be used in production much more

I would say there are two school of philosophy here.

1. Spend time with only one program when you are a beginner, because it takes a lot of concentration to learn a complex piece of software, especially if you are unfamiliar with the subject matter.

2. As you get comfortable with the ONE piece of software, look around at others and "dink" with them to see noticable differences and similarities.

If you have played with 3d software before, explore more than one....If you are new, stick with one...at least for a little while...

-just my 2 cents.
:p

thanks everyone for your advice

well, having been around the block a few times I can tell you that you'll be much happier if you're able to pick up whatever package you can find and use it to its best advantage. Learn one well so that you can get something done (and trust me, Maya's really not a bad choice) but learn another also so that you can see the differences.

Incidentally, if your interest is effects animation then you really should learn Houdini as well as Maya. They're as different from each other as it's possible to be, and everything else will make more sense if you've touched both.

-- Mark