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[Tacitus_Umbra]

So, 8 months ago I decided a career in philosophy/history/anthropology wasn't going to do me anything and resumed the idea of a career in video games that I had as a child up to the age of 18 when the crash hit (and I heard they were firing all the artists).
I made a few things using Blender, but they were all tutorials. When I attempted to make something myself, it was meh. I've heard Maya LT is a lot easier to use. But easier isn't always better. Currently set on using UE4, but that can always change. Now, which of these modeling softwares would be easier, but also efficient for creating all the stuff for my game(s).

Thank you for your time in reading this message and any help you can give.

[ProgramGamer]

Blender.

[swordofkings128]

You're starting on the right path in Blender! I had to look up tutorials for damn near everything when I started. The key when starting is to focus on getting familiar with the tools and understanding volume. Once you get that you'll be able to do mostly anything on you own! But even then sometimes it's not a bad idea to do a google search to see if anyone made a video on how to model what you're trying to make heheh...

I've never used a different modeling program but Blender is by far the most efficient tool I've ever used. It runs very well, has all kinds of cool short cuts and it's obvious it's been crafted with efficiency in mind with lots of input from lots of people(since it's open source)

3d can be extremely frustrating at times but just have patience and keep modeling and you'll become a 3d master eventually!

[oahda]

Blender. Maya's interface is archaic and awful anyway. Blender is sleek and modern AND free!

[FNKVSSL]

Might want to ask on Polycount, we're all poor here.

[alfoux]

3ds max no ?

[thedaemon]

Blender and Wings3D are great to learn to model with. The skills you use in one software will translate to all other software, you just have to learn the buttons. Learning the buttons can be a hard part, but really it's learning the concept of 3d that's the issue. There is no reason not to continue with Blender, if you get good at it you can look at other software. Until then, just focus on doing tutorials and focusing on your art. Blender is close enough (via it's tools) to all the other major 3d packages with modeling that it will get you going in the correct direction. I hope this help you find your way.

[P-Flute]

Might want to ask on Polycount, we're all poor here.

If you want to get your start in AAA development, definitely go hit up Polycount about 3D stuff.

BU-U-UT learning in any 3D program should give you most of the understanding you need to go from program to program and make great stuff, and Blender seems like a good program these days. So, good on you, yeah.   

[oahda]

Might want to ask on Polycount, we're all poor here.

I had a Maya license from school for free for three semesters, so didn't have to have money to experience it. \o/ Kept using Blender in my free time for reasons stated above.

[Canned Turkey]

Might want to ask on Polycount, we're all poor here.

Actually just go to polycount because everybody here will just tell you that 2d sonic games are more fun than zelda 2d games

3ds max no ?

I'm pretty sure if you're a student it's free.

[gimymblert]

No I won't, mixing 2d zelda with 2d sonic is the best idea in the world, it's call mario 64 

[joseph ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

dont get into the blender life if you can avoid it, it's got some cool modern tech stuff but grotesque workflow and tools. Blender is fully featured and powerful, and some amazing and successful artists swear by it, but they are exceptions, not the rule. Very few professional artists stick with it because it is, imo, Legitimately Bad for actually getting any normal work tasks done fast.

If you intend to take game art seriously as a possible career path you're best off starting with 3dsmax or maybe maya. If you want a wealth of high quality learning material and good plugins/scripts max is your best bet -- maya is definitely solid too and used widely professionally.

Do not pay large amounts of money for any 3d software at this point in your life though. use free software, or get it through school or other means of your choosing. Buy something when and if you're bringing in serious amounts of money with it.

[oahda]

What makes you say that? Again, I feel Maya's workflow and tools (for modelling, specifically) are the grotesque ones. Very few hotkeys, quick symmetry stuff absent, just generally slow and old and hard to be fast and productive with in my experience...

[joseph ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

I'm not a big maya fan either. Maya's component system and animation/scripting tools are extremely powerful and well documented for the purposes of professional work though, vs blender's bizarro world of hobbyists and weird tool workflow. Hotkeys aren't a great reason to choose software, as all major 3d tools offer reasonably powerful and flexible rebinding of hotkeys.

Many of my reasons are subjective enough that I'm not really interested in getting into an argument over them online rn -- for my purposes, which line up pretty well with most professional game art work -- max's out of the box features and

are vastly more powerful than blender, although blender could hypothetically be extended with plugins and scripts to be just as usable.

However, most important for a beginner, the difference in quantity of professional tutorials/instructional material between Max or Maya and blender is enormous. The blender community will provide you a billion gimmick tutorials to sift through, vs a wealth of focused, rigorous professional material for more successful industry tools.

[gimymblert]

I dunno catguy the video isn't very convincing since you can do all of that in blender just fine using "modifier" in fact it's literally the same workflow down to edge flow selection.

Concerning professional tutorial that's a myth that there isn't professional tutorial about it, the situation is about the same for any 3D soft, a whole lot of random stuff can be found when you don'y know where to look and most pro tut are on blender foundation for blender, yes you pay for pro grade material. I wouldn't say the workflow of blender is worse than any other soft, I'm more efficient on blender because to me it's more consistent, to each their own.

I can't comment on animation that's not my domain, I have done only a little, better not go that place.

Now there is reason why maya and 3DSmax are industry standard. It's tradition mostly but not only. Tradition as it's better to have only one tool under the same roof, and blender was complete enough to compete at the beginning. Tradition also mean that those tools are heavily embedded into many generations of engines and that training of new employee are done on those soft. Asset pipeline also are heavily reliant on scripting interface with the engine for batch processing. And company get to form relationship with the producer of the soft. Jumping to blender is kind of foolish at that point considering that the homogeneity is a strong argument for employee fluidity. Ie that if you are in the industry, you are guarantee to find a job with minimal training because of the experience at another company, they use almost the same soft. If you want to go in the industry use max or maya.

Now being indie is a different tunes, there is reason to stay maya/3DSmax too, most trained artist works or had worked within the industry (game or animation) so it's easiest to integrate them into a team, especially if you have many contracted artist. BUT blender is progressing each days on that front so it might not be as mandatory as before. One advantage of blender is that it's a complete suite instead of a specialized soft, you can totally produce an animation a-z within it, compositing and sound integration too.

Now I can't say anything about maya because I stayed the hell out of it, but I used 3ds max first. One thing blender where late too was vertex normal manipulations which used, and may still used, to be a big deal, especially when modeling tree, they added something with 2.7x. Other big problem, especially in low poly is that quad edge split is random, in low poly this can destroy your silhouette, In 3ds max you can visualize and rotate hidden edge in a quad (or any ngon) to control the edge flow down to the triangles. This could be killer for rapid game artist workflows. Although rigging use to be a pain in 3DSmax for a long time, when it locked you into the skinning process (can't modify bones after the facts) where in blender you could go in and out of the skinning process since a long time.

[joseph ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

The only part I strongly agree with you about is that 3dsmax and maya are only successful because of tradition -- that's totally true, but that tradition is what provides the wealth of better instructional material in max/maya. Had blender been industry standard for decades I would recommend it despite my issues with its design. While all 3 have large quantities of junk instructionals/tutorials out there, max and maya have a wealth of good content too -- blender you're finding rare gems if you discover quality material.

Everything else you said is mostly irrelevant to the software -- again, any of these results can be achieved in any of the 3, and you can make it fast. What should be convincing about the max modifier example is the UI and flow for it -- the always on modifier stack and inspector panels with relevant functionality shows a kind of design focus and usability that blender's scattershot approach sorely lacks.

[gimymblert]

I dunno what you feel about blender is what I feel toward 3dsmax, I learned things for basic modeling and then it was consistent enough that I didn't have to relearn the interface when moving to UV, animation, sculpt, rigging, etc ... It's so consistent that when I learn a new thing or concept I know exactly how to execute it unlike 3DS max. It's anything but scattershot, once you get it it's the most intuitive interface I ever used. That said there is definitely a bump because it does broke tradition to enforce its way of doing, notably it enforce shortcut early on instead of clicking icons which make you productive faster, clicking is mostly for setting stuff up, it also make for faster diagnostic when things fails.

[ProgramGamer]

I learned blender when I was 12 lol so I don't know why you're saying that good instructional material is scarce.

Then again I did follow a french tutorial so maybe that's what's up.

[cynicalsandel]

i learned serif drawplus instead of adobe illustrator when i was 12 but that doesn't mean that there were sufficient or good instructional material or that drawplus is just as good. i would've been better off just using illustrator. you can learn anything if you brute force it.

i feel like whatever you learn first will feel easier just because it was first. even if things are easier or more straightforward in the latter program, your viewpoint is already warped because you are accustomed to how it is in whatever program you gained some level of ability with.

the main reason to use blender is cost. i'm not going to argue 3ds max is superior, but that's because i know my viewpoint is skewed because it's what i started with. (never even bothered trying maya)

you can be productive with any software.

[gimymblert]

Photoshop and illustrator are still not being beaten to my dismay hard to find replacement.