What is the difference between 3ds max and Blender?

Hi first post.

Working with 3ds is like drawing with sharp pencils and and drafting tools. Working with Blender is like working with oil pastels or paint.

It is easier to get good results with 3ds for the layman. It is easier to get amazing results with Blender for the expert.

 

OH also, What Pixar does is gets hundreds and thousands of artists all drawing exactly the say thing. Their tools reflect that need in their workflow. So what pixar uses is not at all relevant to indy game development.

 

@B1663r:

+1
I do this one all the time, when I want to! In fact, I am doing something like this for my art class...
And that is somewhat true for Pixar. Thing is though, imagine if a game used Pixar for cut-scenes...

And there's another point: With all these resources, why does one not have a renderman export for blender? (Just Kidding, I do know some of the reasons for this one... )

 

Hello all, I use both. I do commercial stuff and artwork in Max. In Blender I teach art workshops but also am start to do my own artwork.

I have a whole series I am adding on my channel of these. I would say Blender is great, if I were starting out and an Indy developer it will do everything you need. If you want a bit more logic with the GUI and also learn 'industry standard', 3ds Max. I would say I still prefer Max at the moment. If you start in Blender and get used to the GUI, you will be fine! Hope this might help people. When it comes to Unity, still learning when I have the time!

 

@James3D: Agreed!

Along with praise for you clip (and many others i've seen... ) in that it shows precisely what it's capable of, provided one knows the UI...

 

This is as endless as the 9mm vs .45 debate.

 

I use sketchup make 2015 personal preference. I don't use a lot of plugins. I like it because it caters to illustrations. I also use a Wacom pen tablet with it. I can practically model just about anything with it. Im very happy. I also have sculptris, unity 5, udk, and unreal 4 engine. I began home schooling myself until I can get back in, to finish my fine arts degree. Gearing towards illustration, 3d modeling and painting. I can learn digital media programs on my own. Ive started 2 months ago knowing absolutely nothing and now my models are coming along. In reality its up to the artist preference. Artist preference is generally based off of your own work flow. I have autodesk express( came with my tablet along with artrage studio), I have inkscape 2.0 and so far no bugs, MyPaint ( surprising a good simple painting program, gimp, photo shop essentials ($70). 3D programs I have Sculptris, sketchup, and blender. Autodesk sketchbook to quickly draw up ideas, I use mypaint and inkscape a lot for creating textures from scratch, sketchup for modeling and blender for importing sketchup models to export to turn low poly meshes into high poly meshes. I can rig models in sketchup using the outliner and manually rigging it. Sculptris im still learning (going to use sculptris for organic models such as humanoid and animals), Anything else I use unity and udk. When I get a better computer I will start using the unreal 4 engine. Find what works for you and go with it. You can use whatever program you want to when you are your own boss.

 

Look, most of what you will do for Unity is pretty simple: building a model, adding a texture, rigging and animating can be handled by every / all. If you are a beginner, and you can get a Student license, I'd recommend Maya or 3DS Max. If you cannot get a Student license, then you are looking at downloading a "trial" version, i.e. a pirated one, or using Blender. In this case, definitely use Blender-- it will totally get the job done.

 

For instance, one thing I can tell that may seem irrelevant but takes me a lot of little portions of time (now add those portions) is when i want to select edges. Sometimes you just don't want to zoom in to select a particular edge and in blender you can click on an area that is close enough to that edge more than it is close to other edges and the application will select it automatically for you. I'm relatively new to 3ds max so i couldn't say whether or not you can change some settings related to this issue, but, in my opinion, if a such a feature exists, then it should be default. On the other hand, 3ds max seems to be more stable and has decades in the market so I'm pretty sure some good stuff is within it. I'm exploring it like crazy right now.

 

well no one has the correct answer, 3ds max and Blender, 3ds max has number, Blender doesn't.
Babam!!

 

i've been using blender for a while now. i hate it but i've figured it out well enough to do what i need to do.

90% of the time, i'm importing models from turbosquid or somewhere, cleaning up the meshes and texture mapping to get them ready for unity.

i recently got a max student licence, mostly so i could convert .max file to something blender can handle, but i wonder if i'm taking the wrong path here, and should be learning max?

it took me so lang to figure out blender's million keyboard and mouse functions and tricks, and it looks like max if totally different, i can't even figure out how to orbit the view!

what to do? is it worth the switch to max?

 

The right path is, to choose a program that you like and you have fun working with. No matter the choice , because most 3D applications do the same things, just the handling is different. Some are easy to use, some are a pain. At the end you get the same result .

 

not this discussion again...

the main point why big studios don't use blender is:

they have a set pipeline and people trained with max or maya or whatever they are using.
changing this and retraining all employees would take a S*** ton of time, while license costs for these programs are peanuts in comparisson

also, with max or maya you get support from the developer if you have trouble, which is something you really want if you are a big studio with a lot of artists

for indies or small business it doesnt make a difference
especially today, where all the 3d modelling packages are one of many tools
depending on your project you will spend more time in zbrush and substance designer, than your traditionell modelling package
its even possible to use zbrush for all the tasks you would do in your 3d modeling package

but, all these programs do the same stuff, more or less
some things work better in one package, and other ones in another package

and theres no need to choose one program, you can have blender as a second package for free and use it for all the things you find easier in blender.
but if you want to get your foot into the industry, you should know one of the two major packages (maya or max)

 

^ This, as much as I regret having to learn Max for the odd times I need it.

 

It doesn't actually matter. The skills that you learn in on software can easily be ported to another. 3DS Max is more commonly used in the industry, but honestly I think that Blender has way more features than 3DS Max. If you want to work as a an artist in the gaming industry, you could start with Blender and then use your skills to learn 3DS Max. If you are an indie, then go with Blender. Frankly, Blender has a lot lot better community and if you are a freelancer and also want to provide VFX in movies and ads, then you can use any software as long as your work is good. With blender, you basically don't need much of a sculpting or texturing software. The tools provided in it are enough to get photo realistic renders. And when Blender 2.8 comes out later in 2018, then Blender will give a tough competition to Autodesk. And at last, I disagree with all those who say that Blender is a 'hobbyist' software. I hope this helps.

 

Simple comment, too OLD a threat and vastly too simplistic to cover differences given the HUGE range of uses for many pros and others--its too vast.
One thing that has always bothered me incredibly, and many BLENDER users as well- trust me, Ive seen it on their forums- anyone can they still exist,is this:

If your model ( I'm not about to CUT it up in pieces and it was started in Sculptris anyway-no thanks ) is in the thousands or Mil's even as mine is, the current version of blender , in EDIT mode at least where I need to work 80% + of the time, comes to a miserable crawl.

THe same thing occurs in 2.8 beta , but its 'viewport' is becoming miles better,,I can switch to EDIT mode from object, and while atm there is a HUGE delay getting TO edit mode, once its there, I can rotate scene and its in the area as fast as most of the others so thats huge progress for all blenders users and who knows how many others. They have really messed up the overall viewport though or maybe they are switching to a new version or in slight chaos given dev stuff and all,,its in BETA so I expect that..I haven't checked so I have no idea, but I"d be surprised if it was too ready until early 2019 , from what I"ve experienced, or maybe later. 2.79 > 2.X admittedly is a huge milestone but atm for everyday use,,afraid not but its FUN trying as I await a stable-FAST viewport compared to almost all other mainstream packages- then again maybe its further ahead than I think, just basing on 'current' experience..I delete and get newer versions every few days hoping viewport issues are almost gone.

ONE huge thing I wish would come artists way is Mudbox's PTEX mapping- seams are so passe- insulting to still have to use such things honestly, but I don't know if PTEX took off thou isn't it used in industry ? ( movies whatever)- still around http://ptex.us/overview.html

 

This is my personal rating scale on which to use in Order
3Ds Max > Blender > Maya

The main issue i have with Blender and Maya is the control scheme.
Its extremely non-intuitive. And of the 3 Maya performed extremely poorly.

Maya is surprisingly more developed though, because it's the main in house app for most studios that deal with animation. However its modeling flow is the most primitive of the the 3.

As for Blender the UI is nicer than Maya by far and the render engine is also nicer. I don't think blender supprts Vray or many of the main pipeline plugins like FumeFX, or FBX support. Its preview renders are faster as well. Im not a huge fan of its workflow personally. Several things are just harder to do like unwrappping and sculpting, they can done...sure but not as elegantly.

As for 3Ds max, its got the best UI and the control scheme is the only 1 of the 3 that i personally find acceptable. Its got the best sculpting support, the most export options, and the most plugin compatibility. And odd thing i found personally is 3ds includes Blender and Maya's control scheme, but the failed to include 3DS Max control scheme. Blender i get, its not owned by Autodesk...but Maya is an ignorant oversight that they refuse to correct.

However most tutorials tend to be in Blender...and Maya...given that they are the more difficult to use of the bunch...I just don't understand that..

But the main difference's are really UI, Aesthetic and the quality of the work you can turn out at different paces.

 

Hello Nipoco, While I frequent both I am not a member of either. Though I have considered joining Polycount, it seems they have a much less active community of which to share an interest in..

I do however frequent http://www.game-artist.net/forums/vray.as a lurker. To be honest it seems as if the interest in this trade peaked at it's height, and died just as quickly. Unless of course you have a job... Preferably in the field you were trained in.
It's understandable to seek an active community. While Polycount may be less active,