Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3DS Max, and Blender. I am new to 3D modeling, and I want to be able to create worlds to explore with characters and vehicles that I have made. I have an Autodesk student license, so cost doesn’t matter. I’ve tried Maya, and I’m getting frustrated with it. Should I just try to learn it, or get one of these other two?


Like the other guys said, I’d go with Blender. Not only because it’s free (even though that’s a huge plus!) but it can prove to be a useful and reliable tool that’s actually capable of doing most if not all of what the leading programs can do. There is a bit of a learning curve that’s a bit steeper in Blender but it’s all worth it. It’s not resource hungry yet with some visual tricks you can get Autodesk quality animation.
I know Maya, 3DsMax and Blender. For modeling, I very much prefer Blender 2.6x. Blender is free, which is important. This 3D stuff I never made a dime of income from it and personally, I think user-friendly technologies are on the way to instantly make 3D wire meshes.
Any of the above-mentioned programs have a high degree of frustration. I have made 25 attempts on one WWII-era bomber using Blender before I could now do the outside skin in about a day. Blender is focused whereas 3Ds and Maya have several ways to make a model.
I’ve used all three and all of them were frustrating until I really started getting used to them.
Personally, I love modeling in Blender cause it has a very intelligent interface which boosts up your workflow.
Plus it does not eat up a lot of your system resources.
Blenjoy…