[Anonimo]

I’ve never worked with 3D modeling and now am starting to look into courses. The hard thing is choosing WHICH program to get into: I’d like something used mostly in the gaming industry. Running a search (particularly scanning career pages on gaming sites) there’s a constant jump between these three demands: 3D Studio Max, Maya and ZBrush.

So which is the best bet? I've read that ZBrush is more of a special effects tool rather than used to build a model from scratch. One post I’ve read commented the 3DMax doesn’t work for Mac, but Maya does, and that most companies today use Macs… so Maya would be the winner?

I DON'T INTEND ON BECOMING A MODELER - I'm a 2D concept artist but would like some knowledge in 3D modeling. Don't know if this will make a difference?

[HosseinRezapour]

i know that in animation indestry they use maya a lot and zbrush is very exelent tool for sculpting your character and creature. jared s marantz the creature designer of clash of titan use it. you can make your basemesh with zsphere in zbrush, if you are a 2d artist defienatley use zbrush for creatures and organic works and sketchup for architectural works.

[Ginsan]

if you are asking between Maya and 3dsMax, i think it would be Maya. 3ds Max usually is used for architectural design while Maya is used for animation mostly.

[devkem]

It's 3Ds Max. Most of the Game Devepolepers uses Max. In the filmindustry or vfx studios you'll find almost Maya.

[Light]

Yeah Max is still the king in games, mainly because of the number of out of the box tools that requires little to no coding and extensive poly modeling tools.

[Mr_Cash]

You`ll never get an exact and true answer which is used more.
Naughty Dogs (Uncharted) uses Maya for everything, Blizzard uses 3dsMax. There are studios which uses both of them, because their game-engine supports the necessary file-formats and import-workflows (UDK) There`re also some other tools like XSI Softimage, Modo and so on...so it really belongs to the company you`ll be working for.

"and that most companies today use Macs"

...errr...NO!!!
Most gaming-studios are using windows PCs, maybe except illustrators, or people who are working with the adobe suite only.

btw.: The general way of modeling, unwrapping etc. doesn't belong to the Software you`re using, its always the same. If you want to get some basic knowledge of 3D modeling, you don`t need to understand how these tools work (which button does what), you have to know why it is done the way it is (smoothing groups, splitting and overlapping UVs, optimizing meshes, working with instances and modular systems etc.)

Don't worry about different tools. Basics are basics!

[Estellesj]

HI,Anonimo, in my point, maya is most used in gaming, because in our company, we ofter use Maya in some animation and game production.