NM Gameworks #24: Maya VS Blender + Unity Chan Dash update

Hey all! So the course I wanted to do at university originally was unsubscribed, so I ended up going an animation course instead at the same university. This is more helpful to me, as while I do have both artistic and programming skills, I find that I know more about the programming side, and that the programming is a bit easier for me to learn. However, changing to this course required me to use a program called Autodesk Maya, the indestury standard for 3D modelling and animation.

Images from Autodesk Maya 2013

I will say straight off the bat that Maya is a lot more stable than blender, and I recommend that you start using Blender for 3 reasons: 

1. It's more stable and crashes less
2. The community around Blender makes it easier to learn, as there is always a tutoral for exactly what you need most of the time
3. IT IS FREE

Blender being free is the big upside to me here. Because of this, I find that Blender is more accessible to younger people, who have little to no money. It's also not helpful that Maya and 3D Max cost about £1,700 a year, which a lot of small studios don't have.

As for the Maya experience? Well, I still think Blender is better, because a lot of the stuff is more logically laid out to me, plus the rendering engines (Arnold and Redshift) for me don't really feel as quick and easy as Cycles or Eevee. I will say that I like that Redshift auto lights your scene for you if you have no Lighting. Also you have to pay more money Redshift, which is just great, isn't it?

Here I have 2 scenes that I made, the Blender one is on the left, the Maya one is on the right. I admit that this isn't a super fair comparison, but I wanted to talk more about the modelling experience rather than everything else, since I don't know how to make procedural textures in Maya yet.

Here's I observed: I found that model overall was easier to make in Blender. I think that Maya is very powerful, in fact I can say that the scene felt easier to make, because it felt like the scene it came together better, as well as the fact that Maya uses On screen Gizmos, making things idiot proof, especially if you have used 3D software before this.

However, I felt that the model was easier to make in Blender. I admit this partly because I'm more use to using the tools there, but I also felt that Maya gave me less control, since I am getting used to Maya pretty quickly. I can see why Maya would be useful for businesses, as does have a lot of powerful tools that I haven't used fully yet admittedly, and I think that it is easier to learn... if you are studying with the software at a specialised school or University. I feel like besides that though, there is no point in using Maya, because Blender is getting to a point of getting a point where it's easier to learn and can do everything Maya can do and more. Plus it's FREE, which makes my choice by default

Before I end off, I also need to say this: Unity Chan Dash has had to restart development. The files that had with Unity broke during a transfer between versions of the engine, and the files corrupted. This is fine however, as there a LOT of things in the game need to be fixed, and I have started working on a new character controller.

That's it for now! Thank you to GoddessReanne for supporting me with one-off coffees. If you would like support me, you can do via the orange button below! 

But for now, thanks for reading, and I will see you guys next time!
Written By Nana Marfo
Blender 2.8(C)Blender Corporation
Autodesk Maya 2018(C)Autodesk.Inc

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