I have heard many aspiring 3D artists ask for help in deciding whether to learn 3ds Max or Maya, yet it seems like a lot of the pros tend to dismiss or scoff at the question. I have explored the high and low for both to find a definitive message. After some research and hands-on experience, I find Maya to be more comprehensive than 3ds Max, while 3ds tends to be more intuitive and has a slightly less steep learning curve. But it goes much deeper than this. You may still wonder “Why and how.” To simplify, I am happy to share my views!
Before I start with the details, it is important for you to know that Maya and 3ds are under the Autodesk umbrella. 3ds Max has belonged to the Autodesk brand for many years. Autodesk acquired Maya recently. Both are considered industry standard for modeling, animation and rendering. Autodesk chose not to merge the two competing products primarily because an entire generation of professionals had become extremely skilled at using one or the other program.
In many ways, Maya and 3ds Max are very similar. We use the Transform gizmo in Max to move, rotate, and scale an object. Maya uses a similar tool. Max still does have some features that are more fun and intuitive to use. On the other hand, I find Maya to be a refreshing improvement to much of the functionality that 3ds Max has to offer. Both Maya and Max use Mental Ray as the secondary rendering engine, giving the artist the power to achieve a photorealistic look.
Max has always focused on game designers. Contrary to this, Maya has its focus on CG film animation. Broadly, they perform the same tasks; they can model, render, and animate. However, speaking of differences…What is the ‘big’ difference if they are so similar? Well…the difference lies in their strengths and weaknesses.
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| Strengths |
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| Weaknesses |
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Max has become extremely popular in architectural and visualization market. In the game and TV/Broadcast market, Maya and Max have equal influence. However, Maya dominates Max in the Film industry.
If you are an aspiring game designer, Max might be a better choice primarily due to its character rigging, motion capture handling, and animation layering. Maya, on the contrary, is known for its fluid effects. So the next time you want to play with pyrotechnics such as fire, explosions, and nuclear blasts; space such as clouds, steam, mist, fog, smoke, and viscous effects such as molten lave and mud, Maya will do the trick. A CG film animator may find Maya to be a better deal.
After being acquainted with Maya, I was inclined towards it, particularly, due to its NURBS modeling. For those unfamiliar with NURBS, they are complex surfaces with low face count. For instance, if you want to create a sphere using polygons, you might end up using over 100 faces. With Maya’s NURB modeling, you will be able to create the shape with a single face. There are no limits to your creativity. Imagine an animation with water seeping down rocks…That’s Maya!
A comparison between the two is no rocket science. Here is a comparison table that will help you make an informed decision.
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Focus Market |
Games |
Film |
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Learning curve to productivity |
< 2 months |
< 3 months |
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Interface |
CAD style, Clean and powerful, slightly more intuitive |
Like a Forge, flexible and powerful, less intuitive than Max |
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Rendering quality |
Excellent |
Excellent |
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Quality w/plugin |
Excellent |
Excellent |
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Animation tools |
Very good |
Excellent |
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UV tools (Unwrap, Pelt…) |
Very good |
Excellent |
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Painting |
None |
Very good |
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Modeling |
Excellent |
Very good |
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NURBS |
Low |
Very good |
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Top unique feature |
ParticlesFlow |
PaintFX Fluids Nucleus |
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The biggest Con |
No new features |
Learning Curve |
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Complete Package for Game Development |
Excellent |
Very good |
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Complete Package for Film Production |
Good |
Excellent |
So getting back to the original question, ‘Which should I choose, 3ds or Maya?’ I find the paint tools, fluid effects, and NURBS modeling in Maya to be simply brilliant. However, the question is not which program is preferable, but what will you use the software for.
I’ve been told many times that you won’t be taken seriously in the CG film industry unless you know Maya. While 3ds Max and Maya appear to be used in equal measure in video game development, Max is considered the industry standard for gaming.
It’s important to settle on your software of choice before getting started. Some artists consider looking into a switch from one to the other, but once you are adept at using one of them, it’s best to stick with it. I find no sense in making a switch as each program involves a steep learning curve. Once you are adept at working with either one, there is almost no difference in what you can create. It is all about how you use the right tools.
45 comments
2 pings
Nick says:
July 27, 2010 at 5:09 pm (UTC 0 )
Very nice, you put everything on shelves, thank you.
Harj says:
September 29, 2010 at 11:14 pm (UTC 0 )
Thanks for this article – very helpful. I’ve been using Maya for about a year now and was thinking of switching to Max. Maya all the way now.
Gareth Jones says:
October 7, 2010 at 1:27 pm (UTC 0 )
You have some strengths and weaknesses that apply to both, which in a comparison doesn’t really make sense.
For instance, a strength of Maya over 3DSMax is that it’s “Preferred tool if you are just getting into 3-D modeling”, but you also have that listed for 3DSMax – they can’t *both* be the preferred tool, can they? It’s either one or the other.
Overall though, I get what you’re trying to say and I think I’ll go with Maya and take the steeper learning curve in return for the extra features.
helvetica says:
October 10, 2010 at 7:16 pm (UTC 0 )
Nice effort. However:
When I first starting teaching myself 3D about 7 years ago I had the same reaction as you did. The “Pros” would dismiss the question and/or seem to be condescending about such a newbie question. I couldn’t get a straight answer and for every argument for max over maya there would be a counter argument the other way. As time past I learned both of them and began to realize that although these “Pros” could have been more courteous in answering my question years ago, they were right. Now having a great deal of experience in both apps (and becoming a “pro” myself
), I have come to realize that there is no “right” answer . Once you learn both apps you realize that the pros and cons don’t really apply as you find multiple ways of doing things in both pieces of software. So as with everything in life, its relative and the answer to the question really depends on the who the person is that’s asking it.
Best,
Helvetica Twain
Iceland
Stephen Cordes says:
November 24, 2010 at 12:04 pm (UTC 0 )
I note your comment about “Once you are adept at working with either one, there is almost no difference in what you can create. It is all about how you use the right tools” What if I want to do both? Is there a package that you would recommend as an overall for both those tasks?
admin says:
November 24, 2010 at 6:33 pm (UTC 0 )
Stephen,
Good question! I wonder if anyone has written a manual along the lines of “3ds Max for Maya Users” and vice versa.
My personal thoughts are that it’s really best to pick one and run with it. Like Helvetica says above, there’s no “right” answer as one or the other… but it seems like to try and tackle both would be double the effort for the same results (you can do the same thing with both of them).
Gabe
admin says:
November 24, 2010 at 6:34 pm (UTC 0 )
Helvetica, thanks for your comments… I’ll do some editing on this article to address those issues.
GS
Todd says:
November 29, 2010 at 5:54 am (UTC 0 )
I was just wondering what the official reasoning is from Autodesk on why they make two seemingly competitive products rather than combining their dev teams to make the one super program ?
I wondered since you had links to buy that you may have an affiliation of some sort.
I was also wondering if there was any place for Cinema 4D or Lightwave in this vs argument at all ? I get the impression that they may not be on the same shelf ?
Thanks for a really helpful article.
admin says:
November 29, 2010 at 7:09 am (UTC 0 )
Todd, thanks for the questions!
Both Maya and 3ds Max were purchased by Autodesk at different points. They were never merged into one product, mostly because so many experts in one or the other were already working with them… making a merge nearly impossible. (It would have caused riots among their respective followers
)
As for Lightwave and Cinema 4D, both are great but neither are really seriously competitive (in terms of sheer number of professionals using them). If anything, Blender would be a serious competitor because it’s the only open-source and free-of-charge option that is in any way comparable. I’ve found Blender too awkward and difficult to use, but I’ve heard that anything that you can do with 3ds Max and Maya is also possible in Blender.
Todd says:
November 29, 2010 at 11:17 pm (UTC 0 )
Great confirmation that Maya is the way to go overall, thanks very much !
My professional area is actually high end commercial retouching, primarily for outdoor / print and I’m led to believe that Maya is also the one to go for in this category as well. Just thought that might be worth adding to the overall assessment being made here.
BTW, for anyone starting from scratch like me, I’m finding the lynda.com Maya ’11 Essential Training very good so far.
Now, about that learning curve… >O
Andres says:
January 18, 2011 at 9:45 pm (UTC 0 )
This is a good review for those softwares, but I have worked with both softwares for 7 years and I have to tell you that youre a little out of date with the updates of 3dsmax. The 2011 version has painting tools far advanced for painting characters that the one that Maya has. Laso, there is now some kind of paint fx tool in Max called Object Paint.
To be honest the tools for modelling in Max are far better than Maya, specially with the polyboost tools included now with the software.
Also there is a better hypershade version on Max called slate that looks kinda the same as render man material edior.
There is huge list of updates, including the huge amount of great official plugins.
I think that Maya laks in too many things against Max, for example, simple ex, the rename tool, that tool in Maya is very weak.
You made a comparison about the UVW and UNWRAP tools in Max… as I said, I’ve worked with both softwares and still I think that Max tool is much better. The polyboost tools were also included in that part.
In the other hand, Maya has better controls for animation, its much easier to understand this process.
Also the top advantage in my opinion of Maya over Max is RenderMan, I think there is no discussion.
Cheers
rendy says:
February 23, 2011 at 5:03 pm (UTC 0 )
haha… yesterday i tried to make some cool text in maya, its too complicated, so i get back to max
btw, agree with helvetica and andres, thx
VIP says:
February 24, 2011 at 10:55 am (UTC 0 )
I’m russian. Thank you for good and clear explanation the difference between these programs. And thank you people for coments.
daniel says:
March 6, 2011 at 10:48 am (UTC 0 )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHD8Xf5Rnvo
daniel says:
March 6, 2011 at 10:55 am (UTC 0 )
http://vimeo.com/7809605 3ds max
Nits says:
March 27, 2011 at 1:03 pm (UTC 0 )
thanks.
adam says:
April 30, 2011 at 4:38 am (UTC 0 )
it matters what you want to make out of a video personally i like udk because im more of a unreal video maker im still in learning with udk but if you like small little cartoons use 3ds max works good but if your making a movie or film use maya
al says:
May 5, 2011 at 5:10 am (UTC 0 )
3dsmax design (not 3dsmax) is more popular in the architectural market and 3dsmax design also have the NURBS, ‘covert to NURBS’ function among many others. I agree with Andres.
I also notice different regions of the world use different software, so I approach the question of ‘which software to use?’ based on which region I would like to move to.
Any way you could add 3dsmax design to the review? thanks
Telstar says:
May 16, 2011 at 5:48 am (UTC 0 )
Thanks for the great comparison -the first thing I ran into when trying to find out “maya or max” was that arrogant “are you really stupid enough to ask?!?” response from the experienced users -your article is just what I was looking for.
Looking to get started creating game assets as a hobby (I’m a CS major and probably won’t be looking to get into the game industry) -I have Blender and Lightwave and don’t really like either. Was looking at Cinema 4D too, but the Autodesk programs look better -as a student, I was able to get full versions of max and maya on a free 3 year educational license (check it out if you’re a student!), and I wasn’t sure which to start with. Now I know -Thanks!
RW says:
June 8, 2011 at 11:45 am (UTC 0 )
your research is not deep enough. if you dig deeper, you will find max everywhere, even on the personal computers of the guys at ILM. and you forgot the most powerful part of max- the community and strong plugins architecture. you can find 100 max script files while at the time you are searching for a mel script.
PlatinumV says:
June 28, 2011 at 1:45 pm (UTC 0 )
Thank you very much. I was searching for something like this for ages! Now I have a better idea in who does what. Thank you!
RJC says:
July 18, 2011 at 11:43 am (UTC 0 )
This is awesome!!!
I was puzzling through the dark clouds of confusion for which of the two softwares to use/learn!!!
Now I am out of the clouds and onto the ground again…I choose to learn Maya…
Stephan says:
July 25, 2011 at 12:38 pm (UTC 0 )
Very good article thx
Cyan 3D, Bangladesh says:
August 5, 2011 at 10:33 am (UTC 0 )
Well, good comparison. But I think both are Equal in Film, animation & game industry.
The reason for Maya is popular in the Film industry is that, Maya has built-in Fluid systems, max has none. But Max has Extremely powerful fluid dynamic systems as Plugins pack Like AfterBurn, FumeFX, DreamScape, Glu3D & many more. And they are very powerful than Maya’s built in Fluid system. But those plugins are heavy expensive and for this reason people use maya mostly.
NURBS was familiar in the past decades. But now polygon modeling is standard in Film, Animation & game sector. You call me mad? think again. Poly modeling is really very easy but hard rock powerful. Now there are some great Sculpturing application in the market like ZBrush & Mudbox. You roughly model your object than export it to ZBrush or whatever you use and for rough modeling. 3ds max is one great application in the world for poly modeling. So why you waste your time by creating Details using NURBS?
Yes Max has a Great Character animation system Like Character Studio & CAT that maya hasn’t. maya has traditional system.
Max is now totally improved for any kind of tasks. So Remember it’s not the fact of which application you use rather how you use it and in ww\hich you feel comfort?
Link max in VFX film: http://www.enwikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_made_with_Autodesk_3ds_Max
Cyan 3D, Bangladesh says:
August 5, 2011 at 2:00 pm (UTC 0 )
Sorry there is an error in the address, the address is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_made_with_Autodesk_3ds_Max
have fun
funnyfish says:
August 29, 2011 at 3:39 pm (UTC 0 )
I think you are misleading people with your description of Maya having a steeper learning curve. A steep learning curve implies that you learn a lot in a short time, whereas your article says it takes a month longer to learn Maya to a productive level. A shallow learning curve implies that it takes longer to learn – i.e. it is more difficult to learn.
I think a lot of people get this back to front…
Annonnymous says:
September 13, 2011 at 7:21 pm (UTC 0 )
This is an informative article, however, I have used both Max and Maya and I have to say that I needed a tutorial to do anything whereas Max was like instinct, it was so easy to use. Also, you may not have know, but Max also lets you edit every single vertex in an object and its ability to create unique 3D objects si just as powerful as Maya.
sanjeewa says:
September 24, 2011 at 2:28 pm (UTC 0 )
well done . nicely said. thanks
josef says:
October 1, 2011 at 4:20 pm (UTC 0 )
i prefer maya for many things but essentially for one thing you may never consider it’s speed although maya is much more faster than 3ds max in any aspect but i mean speed of using for example maya navigation and camera style is much more convenient than 3ds and it make you more faster maya hot keys arrangement is much much more better. for example how many time you have to do undo command? 3ds max accepted the conventional ctrl+z but in maya you just have to press z if you know how to not look at your keyboard for typing maya has designed exactly for you. also you can customise maya as you want absolutely you are free but max hmm!!!! and marking menu it’s amazing you chose vertex in 001 second or edges or object or anything you can imagine!!!! but in max you have to go this tab and scroll down and now find that ….. here we go now you can chose what you want!!!!! that makes me crazy it takes your energy you know what i mean?! and the last thing and the biggest difference the smooth preview in maya every time you can switch smooth or regular view max never got near to that feature even it’s smoothing is weird it’s not like maya i can explain but forget it! don’t use max. it’s essential for me using maya rather than max as i use my keyboard for typing rather than my mouse!
CHOCKER CHIP COOKIEZ says:
October 5, 2011 at 8:29 am (UTC 0 )
A great article which really helped me a lot. I’l enjoy using this guide to choose what program I need to make modells in the future MMORPG’s I will make.
Perhaps I will even acquire both…
~Cookiez and milk >:]
phramick says:
October 10, 2011 at 5:24 pm (UTC 0 )
Very nice article, helped me a lot. Thank you!
Ayaz Mahmood says:
October 17, 2011 at 6:11 pm (UTC 0 )
That very comprehensive and nice article.
I love max, Modeling and character animation with CAT is stunning.
I like maya modeling but over all I like max in all perspectives.
Mike Bethany says:
October 18, 2011 at 4:14 pm (UTC 0 )
When I first looked at them both I found there was only one feature that mattered: which one runs on my Mac? 3ds Max doesn’t, Maya does. Problem solved.
Interestingly a lot of the tutorials I’m reading on Unity3D talk about Maya and only a few mention 3dsMax so I wonder if more indie game developers are using Maya.
Dayum says:
October 21, 2011 at 8:18 pm (UTC 0 )
I just started 3D in college and my school teaches in Maya, probably because the curriculum seems to be focused on animation. I’m using 3Ds Max too regardless. If the learning curve to productivity is really only 2-3 months, then I really don’t see why it’s necessary to stick to one program.
Maya seems to want users to do everything in a manual way with multiple steps, while 3ds Max seems to have a lot of shortcuts in modeling, which makes a lot more sense to me. I should not need to
I can’t help but notice that the vast majority of models I see online are done with 3ds Max though. I guess Maya plugins are really not enough to get itself up to par with 3ds Max in terms of modeling? I’m really unclear of how much plugins help with Maya, if the good ones are free, etc.
I’m a bit frustrated by the fact that there are two industry standards… Autodesk’s reasoning for keeping the programs separate is that there are already many experts that prefer one program over the other, but did they realize that this decision only benefits people now and frustrates everyone else who would learn 3d in the future? Shitty ass decisions based on money.. bleh
Mervyn says:
October 22, 2011 at 3:32 am (UTC 0 )
Thank you. This article makes it so much easier to decide. Your effort is much appreciated. Cheers!
Aaron says:
November 4, 2011 at 6:32 am (UTC 0 )
Easily the best comparison i’ve seen
Cheers for your time and effort
Angie says:
November 4, 2011 at 11:15 am (UTC 0 )
Thanks very much for this, I’d been stumped.
Alistair Craig Nel says:
November 7, 2011 at 9:09 pm (UTC 0 )
I wanna get into 3d modeling and this article was very comprehensive.
I guess 3dmax it is
Thanks for sharing!
Miguel says:
November 11, 2011 at 10:41 am (UTC 0 )
I believe if you learn the hard way, you will eventually learn it all.
One thing people do forget about and only 1 person has mention is the use of shortcuts, rather relying on your mouse for every single tasks. Once you are confortable using shortcuts, Maya or Max is the same when it comes to modeling.
Both are highly customizable, no difference in there. So, the question one should ask himself / herself, is what do I want to do ?
Get into the Film industry? –> Maya
OR
Get into the Game industry? –> 3ds Max
That pretty much sums up everything. I have used both and I can say, 3ds max is easy to use and learn, while Maya, does have some learning curve. However, both are a joy to use. Remember, they are just tools for an end.
sheran says:
November 30, 2011 at 7:51 am (UTC 0 )
thank..
MUNAF says:
December 18, 2011 at 8:54 am (UTC 0 )
hi thanks for the info….its really nice to read and good part is very simple to understand….tc
Argin Nocodo says:
December 31, 2011 at 9:04 am (UTC 0 )
Any comparison is arbitrarily partisan at best in that there’s no point comparing an apple and an orange cos’ both are fruits to begin with. Although you can argue that both taste different which is DUH!!! There will be people who don’t like apple for whatever reason, so why force it down their throats?
Same goes for Maya and Max. Why compare it when you should use what you feel is more comfortable. Try it for yourself and arrive at your own decision. I have tried both and I personally prefer Maya for it’s many features and accessibility in my line of work.
Despite that, within the same broad category of this 3D industry, there will always be preference for a particular software package due to their unique pipelines.
No doubt that Maya was “made” for film as it had traditionally been and continuously been refined to gear towards that direction, 3dmax being then, a cheaper package was more “suitable” for the gaming industry. However, seeing the way things are and how autodesk is positioning 3dsmax, you could find max being increasingly used in more high-end production in future.
Personally, I do not like the idea of Maya being usurped from it’s dominance in film.
This is just personal, nothing against Max.
In blur studio, their entire pipeline is based around 3dsmax. Does it mean that their cinematic is anything less awesome than a studio using maya? Not really. it is really how you use the tool for the job.
I am not taking side but for a balance argument sake, I feel is it best to stay neutral.
HOWEVER, I still insist on my preference for Maya and sadly I only used 3dmax to convert models that is readable for Maya. Isn’t that sad? Haha…
However, it’s not the software you use that matters. Is how you use it. Maya or Max is really the same, no matter how you wanna compare it. In the end, you are only limited by your own creativity, imagination and skills.
Chill out dudes…..
Ramesh Sangpang Rai says:
January 13, 2012 at 5:20 pm (UTC 0 )
Hi,
Thanks for crystal clear clarification between Maya n Max.
To be honest I hate commenting on subjects but your hard work compelled me to admire and appreciate your time and knowledge.
I know you took a long time to create it so it’s not fair if we don’t make a nice comment (after learning from your hard work).
Thanks again.
Best regards
Sangpang Rai
crzydroid says:
January 14, 2012 at 11:32 pm (UTC 0 )
Thanks for this tutorial, and thank you everyone, for your comments, which have added to the discussion. The real answer seems to be that they were competitors acquired by the same company and it will come down to personal preference.
To Telstar: I would definitely take advantage of the free 3-year license from autodesk, but in the meantime I would give Blender some more chances. I too, found Blender too frustrating at first after having used 3ds Max. Now that I am getting the hang of the way the Blender interface does things, I can model about as quickly and easily as I would in Max. I also really like the cloth and fur features in the new version of Blender.
For those going into the relevant fields professionally, it is probably worth it to invest in Max or Maya. I’ve found that the Max interface is relatively intuitive, and the help files are probably better for a first-timer. For those who are 3D modelers/animators as hobbyists, like me and Telstar, I would strongly recommend Blender. Once you get the hang of it, it is powerful, has a lot of features, and probably is a serious competitor to the industry standard programs.
I do have to say that with the biped feature for Max, it is really easy to make a character walk. Just lay down the footsteps!
mitchow says:
February 7, 2012 at 6:36 am (UTC 0 )
Nice… Well I’m deciding on both now =p get the best of both worlds haha
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December 28, 2011 at 1:34 am (UTC 0 )
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