AVA software Maya / 3ds Max

[Andrew Schuetze]

How many of you read the small type in this year's AVA rules that allowed most any animation software except Maya Right about the time that the 2006 FRC season started Autodesk purchased Maya and now one finds this on their product page.

Autodesk Maya
Academy Award® winning software for digital image creation, 3D animation, and visual effects.


Autodesk 3ds Max
Highly customizable and scalable 3D animation, modeling, and rendering solution for games, film, television, and design visualization.


What will be in the 2007 KOP???

Will there be copies of both or just 3ds max...

APS

[Mazin]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schuetze

How many of you read the small type in this year's AVA rules that allowed most any animation software except Maya Right about the time that the 2006 FRC season started Autodesk purchased Maya and now one finds this on their product page.

Autodesk Maya
Academy Award® winning software for digital image creation, 3D animation, and visual effects.


Autodesk 3ds Max
Highly customizable and scalable 3D animation, modeling, and rendering solution for games, film, television, and design visualization.


What will be in the 2007 KOP???

Will there be copies of both or just 3ds max...

APS

Autodesk bought Maya before the 2006 season, but apparently the needed more time before they could start giving it to the teams. There's no word on whether Maya will be given to the teams. My guess is that most teams are already acclimated to Max and that some people might seize the opportunity to learn Maya but not use it for the AVA. Autodesk may or may not give out Maya.

BTW, "allowed most any animation software except Maya" is misleading. More like, 3ds max not Maya.

[Andrew Schuetze]

Originally Posted by Mazin

snip
My guess is that most teams are already acclimated to Max and that some people might seize the opportunity to learn Maya but not use it for the AVA. Autodesk may or may not give out Maya.

BTW, "allowed most any animation software except Maya" is misleading. More like, 3ds max not Maya.

You are right on the to the point message in the AVA rules.
Your other comment leads me to start a poll to find out how many teams have familiarity with Maya...

[lukevanoort]

The rules, IIRC, said something to the effect of "the final render must be in MAX." So, our animation team used Blender because one of them was very familiar with it, more so than anyone was with MAX. But, we still followed the rules by doing the final render in MAX. (7 though, since we didn't discover 8's little network issue until the day before it had to be in)

[David55]

Does anybody know if using Maya will be allowed next year?

It looks like it will be now that it is an Autodesk product, but I just want to be sure.

[BuddyB309]

I am a little ashamed at not knowing this when I'm an animator but, What is the advantages of using Maya opposed to using 3ds max? What program is better at what?

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by BuddyB309

I am a little ashamed at not knowing this when I'm an animator but, What is the advantages of using Maya opposed to using 3ds max? What program is better at what?

From what I hear, it's generally accepted that 3ds is much better for modelling and game creation, but that Maya is more commonly used for professional animations and scenes. This is not to say that they're not used for the other (they are to a large degree), but if you look at their credits (what big productions they've been used for) you'll see a larger number of video games listed for 3ds.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by BuddyB309

I am a little ashamed at not knowing this when I'm an animator but, What is the advantages of using Maya opposed to using 3ds max? What program is better at what?

Each software package has its ups and downs. Really, it's just a matter of personal preference. You could do the same things with both 3DS Max and Maya, but you'd usually have different ways of going about them in each software package.

With Autodesk's purchase of Maya, it will be interesting to see if they will give teams a choice of which software package they want to use.

[RoboJedi75]

The problem right now is that most teams use 3ds max:
1. Because it is given to them.
2. Because of the past competitions.

I myself have only used 3ds max. We've become very efficient and know the software very well. Switching would mean getting used to a new product (though I don't know how different Maya is to work with afterall). Maya is the more complex system. Then again, most of the teams would start out on a level playing field again. This could get interesting.

[Mazin]

Originally Posted by RoboJedi75

The problem right now is that most teams use 3ds max:
1. Because it is given to them.
2. Because of the past competitions.

I myself have only used 3ds max. We've become very efficient and know the software very well. Switching would mean getting used to a new product (though I don't know how different Maya is to work with afterall). Maya is the more complex system. Then again, most of the teams would start out on a level playing field again. This could get interesting.

I tried the Maya PLE, and it was completely confusing to me as a Max user. See how they spoiled me with their interface

[Mazin]

Originally Posted by lukevanoort

The rules, IIRC, said something to the effect of "the final render must be in MAX." So, our animation team used Blender because one of them was very familiar with it, more so than anyone was with MAX. But, we still followed the rules by doing the final render in MAX. (7 though, since we didn't discover 8's little network issue until the day before it had to be in)

Makes me feel all warm inside to hear about blender.

[Nuttyman54]

I think it's one of those "you like what you learned on" deals. I, for one, cannot use Inventor, because I learned CAD on AutoCAD, and the two programs are different enough that I have trouble teaching myself Inventor. I'm so much faster at AutoCAD that it's just more efficent to do it in there then to spend time trying to figure out how to do the same in Inventor. If I had actually had time, I would've taken a class at the local community college, but alas, I could not.