Maya LT or Blender?

So, I decided to start making my own art assets for prototyping or even for production. Sometimes I have some stuff in my imagination that I would like to create, like a Sci-fi weapon or a robot. I tried blender based on its popularity and the fact that it's free, but my experience with it is just horrible. Very off-putting UI, a lot of bugs, panels doesn't show when they are supposed to. Can't resize windows or panels ( the double-edged arrow appears but when I click & drag, nothing happens) I find myself fighting with the software most of the time rather than learning or doing any actual work. I'm just not feeling comfortable with it.

I did some research and found a lighter version of Maya called Maya LT. I downloaded the free trial but haven't tried it yet. I think those are the only two options suitable for me right now ( budget being a factor here) and was wondering what people think is better out of the two. Maybe I'm missing something with blender? maybe Maya LT is actually better? opinions?

 

I've never touched Maya LT, but I'm understanding it has a price, albeit a small one. I've been using Blender for years, but it has been quite a while since I really had issues that you describe with UI bugs. I realize that the UI is quite unique, and there are plenty of people who don't like it, many of which have used other software, but some who have not and still don't like it. In my personal case, the UI doesn't bother me at all, either because I've gotten used to it or because it is the primary 3d software I've used(though I used Milkshape3d way back in the early 2000s).

In your case, I recommend you try Maya LT. If you find you are able to learn and work with it, and you can afford the price, then it may be your best bet. Blender is enough and works fine for me, so I'd rather take my $30 a month and use it for other things. Some people aren't able to get results with Blender for different reasons. In a general sense though, I'd say Blender is more than enough for a good majority of people, though some don't use it due to preferences, not because it can't do what they need.

Another thought...how long has it been since you tried Blender? Which version(s) did you try? Can you easily reproduce the bug type issues you had? Maybe it is something that has been fixed since you tried, or maybe someone can help to resolve it if you are still interested in Blender. I'm curious about these things just because I've used Blender quite a bit(though not expertly yet), and I rarely run into issues. The biggest issues I've seen are due to using the 32bit version and trying to do something that needs more RAM than a 32-bit program can handle. That though is my own fault, not the fault of Blender...and switching to 64-bit Blender fixed that for me.

 

With Maya LT you can do the same things as in Blender in respect of Game asset
There is no champion just a matter of personal taste.
I personally use Maya LT and like the user guidance more as the one in Blender.

 

If you don't already know 3D modelling well, blender is by far the best bet. It's a free way to learn and easily good enough. If you grow beyond Blender you'll know without anyone telling you. The skills are transferable so go with free option.

 

Although In some cases I find Maya do for me a better job
In this example to compare transfer automatic a weight map in Maya is better than in Blender for my taste

 

Thanks guys for the replies. After trying out Maya LT, I can say that as a software it's much much better than blender. Its UI is very clean and easy to work with. The only major problem for Maya LT is the lack of resources. I couldn't find any decent tutorials online for it, even Autodesk themselves only have a couple of very basic tutorials for just explaining how to work with the software, which is a shame really.

Could you point me to any kind of beginner tutorials for Maya LT?

 

It's been some time, but I thought LT was just Maya without the rendering components. May be worth checking if standard May a tutorials translate. Sorry I don't have more.

 

I was also on the fence between Maya LT and Blender a couple of years ago, so I've done a fair amount of research on this. Since I don't want to retype everything, I've linked to all my relevant comments that will hopefully help with making a decision:


https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/3ds-max-or-maya.343693/#post-2222912
https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/i...ont-name-blender-or-help.356720/#post-2307892
https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/learning-3d-question.373432/#post-2421978
https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/o...e-bad-and-the-ugly.361595/page-2#post-2515308
https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/h...nity-or-fail-badly.390947/page-7#post-2559671
https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/a...eady-to-give-up-on-unity.425903/#post-2756953
https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/a...o-give-up-on-unity.425903/page-2#post-2757038
https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/i...r-game-development.431698/page-2#post-2796202

Spoiler: Blender won me by a nose.

 

Thanks for the reply.
Yes, I decided on blender even though it is hard to get used to due to some weird design choices made by the developer team, and because -as I mentioned above- the lack of resources or large community for Maya LT.