andyH Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 Hello everyone. I can see there isnt much discussion on the forums about Autodesk Maya. Is that because 3DS is better suited to architectural visualization? I am in the discovery stage of a potential career change and dont want to start learning tools, or worse paying for tools and training that may not necessarily be the best for the job. I would like to be able to free-lance and create architectural fly-by and fly-through animations for local architects and developers, any advice on the best tools for the job, or the most accepted and most widely used tools for this type of cg visualization would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 Max has always had a larger share of the architecture market for various reasons but there's no good reason not to use Maya, especially if you're going to be working solo and don't need to rely on compatibility with other people who are using Max. Maya's got just as good a modeling environment (better in some respects), animates like nobody's business and has basically the same mental ray implementation and accepts a fairly similar selection of render plugins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyH Posted April 6, 2009 Author Share Posted April 6, 2009 Thanks for the reply, your answer is pretty much as I guessed. As a free-lancer I may need to work with other's that may be using different software, such as Max, so in that case wouldnt it be better to learn Max instead of Maya? I have the luxury of knowing nothing yet Also, aside from architectural visualization, I would also want to be able to produce work for other industries such as the entertainment industry, but Im not much fo an artist so that would be a secondary consideration. Also if Maya does animation better than Max, and the modelling tools and capabilities are similar, aside from MAX's popularity in this sector, would there be any other reason at all to NOT train on Maya? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 You can transfer files reasonably well between recent versions of Max ad Maya by exporting as FBX files. It's not perfect but good enough most of the time. Entertainment animation studios often do use Maya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mahorela Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 I think vray for maya is not too far off as well......that was the only reason that swayed me toward max in the first place (vray availability). no reason not to use it.....I'm actually thinking of getting into Maya myself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markw7 Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 How would you all compare the unit setup, unit accuracy, snapping features and other construction tools between the two programs? I've always considered Maya more counter-intuitive in these areas, and Max slightly more logical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyH Posted April 7, 2009 Author Share Posted April 7, 2009 Well I have made the decision to go with Max. I have been talking with an online school to get me started and they run identical courses in parallel, one course for Max and one course for Maya. So I asked the Max or Maya question to the school before signing up and they have recommended Max because, quote: "For interior design or architectural related things yes 3DS Max is the way to go though you can do the same in Maya. The difference is how far you want to go with the Architectural stuff. If you plan on working with people that will send you CAD files to do the visualizations from then 3DS Max is the way to go hands down and I think that you mentioned that you wanted to do some work for local developers and stuff. The reason being 3DS Max has more tools in it for that kind of thing." The above comment comes from someone that teaches both Max and Maya, they also went on to say that for the entertainment industry, Max will do pretty well when compared to Maya. At the end of the day I am sure that they both do a fine job and can be used in either sector, but for me I think Max is the right choice simply because I want to see how well I can do with architectural visualization. I think if I were focusing on animation or modelling for the entertainment industry I would probably have chosen Maya. Now I am itching to get started! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1eo Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Just wondering... what made decide that 3d visualizations would be a better career path? What do you do for a living right now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyH Posted April 7, 2009 Author Share Posted April 7, 2009 Just wondering... what made decide that 3d visualizations would be a better career path? What do you do for a living right now? I’m not sure how to answer that, interesting question and one I haven’t really tried to answer for myself. I think that firstly I don’t really expect this to be a total career change, even if I wish for it a little, I am hopeful that I can earn a little extra cash on the side whilst getting good at 3D work. I have always fancied getting into architecture and even looked into doing a degree but could not attend school because of where I live, and nobody was offering an online degree in architecture so that idea fell by the wayside. And then, a few months ago I was at a party and met an architect and we started chatting about a project he was working on, and the conversation got around to marketing and then logically around to visualization and he seemed to think there would be a market for someone locally to provide that type of work, so it sort of fell into my lap. Would I like to work for Pixar or any of the other leading entertainment shops? hell yea!!, but I am not what you would call an artist, and I have no skills or experience with classic animation or any of the other arty pre-requisites... I do have an engineering background and when I see a high quality architectural fly-by or walk-through I cast an envious eye over it and think if or how I could improve it... when I see a Pixar movie and look at the soft-body modeling and realistic animations I just cant imagine being that clever at it... sorry that was a bit long winded.. Let me summarize... I have an engineering background and like the idea of architecture and 3d and I think I have a market close by... and I doubt that I have the skills to be good enough to break into the movie industry, but I would be willing to try. At the moment I work as an IT consultant delivering corporate systems, in the past I have worked as an aviation engineer and a pilot, so CGI will be a nice change, with the possibility of being a little creative which isn’t a luxury I have now, being too creative in my line of work just seems to get me into trouble. Good question, thanks for that. I would be very interested to hear how others got into architectural visualization... and what your experiences have been, backgrounds, expectations and if the job is as much fun as I think it could be, its a bit off topic but if the mods don’t mind, it would be good to hear from others. I start my Max course beginning of next month, and I have to say I am quite excited about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobODea Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Don't mean to throw a spanner in the works but... If I was spending my own hard earned cash... XSI Purely because it does exactly what the others do plus it has its own excellent compositing software built in. It would just save cash instead of buying after effects or something similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyH Posted April 8, 2009 Author Share Posted April 8, 2009 Don't mean to throw a spanner in the works but... If I was spending my own hard earned cash... XSI Purely because it does exactly what the others do plus it has its own excellent compositing software built in. It would just save cash instead of buying after effects or something similar. Interesting advice, I see that SoftImage (assume thats what used to be XSI) has a price tag of just under $3000, but I can buy a boxed copy of max for $3500. So I would save $500, but the whole reason for choosing Max was industry compatibility. Are you using XSI for architectural vizualization? and if so any chance of having a look at work you have produced using XSI? Although I have paid for my max foundation course, I am still keen to explore all options. Thanks for the suggestion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manta Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 XSI used to be $500...a savings of $3,000....maybe that's why he said that...I don't think they're doing that anymore since AD bought XSI.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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