I have used Autodesk products daily for over 15 years. From the suite of Autodesk's offerings, I got into Maya first because it was and still is the industry standard for Box Office animation and VFX. Autodesk Maya is a complete, off-the-shelf animation solution for blockbuster films (search IMDB for credits). It's not just a One Man Band tool but also a scalable, small studio and big production houses tool, like ILM or DreamWorks. It has many components, each being an entire artistic discipline, a job in the market or specialty, such as modeling, rigging, texturing, dynamics, etc. So, it takes a good bit of time to learn, depending on your specialty or if you are a generalist. If you are only trying to learn one component, like modeling or animation, then it's a much, much, much shorter learning curve. You are learning one part instead of ten disciplines. That would be my advice to you. First, only learn what you need like rigging, if you plan to be a studio setup artist. For instance, when I first started, I only needed to know UV's so I can export texture layouts into ElectricImage, which UV was still in development but had FBX import and could import UVs. So by learning one task from Maya, I was able to add a distinct feature to my artwork in EIAS3D. This was a distinct advantage in the look of the images I could produce with the added pay-off delving into the world of Autodesk professional software. The strategy of using Maya for its uniquely powerful features endowed my abilities. Now I became more marketable because I could export to other apps. This strategy has been a stalwart that I have built a career on. However, now we have auto-UV tools so it's not as in demand but by using the UVs, with a goal, I inadvertently started to learn more and more about Maya. So, UV's lead to modeling, and modeling lead to rigging and rigging lead to animation, which leads to large-scale corporate projects. Before I knew it, I was a professional Maya User running my own studio with a small team. One thing leads to another. So when it comes to learning this suite of tools, don't try to learn everything all at once. Modulize your learning based on your project needs, personal goals, or artistic aspirations. Learn only the parts you need to apply. Yes, I do learn simply for the sake of curiosity but be mindful. 3D exploration can be a rabbit hole to Wonderland. It makes me curious and curiouser still. Simply put, modern-day 3D Art is phenomenal! But, you don't have to be overwhelmed when learning big apps.
This review is not just about Maya. It's an overview of a full suite of tools that cover each part of the creative workflow needed to produce animation content, projects or creative expression. One would think Maya, with all its functionality, would be enough! That's the thing about Autodesk, they own all the major players for 3D content creation, so what this collection does is offer an across-the-board collection of all the big hitters in their respective genres. SketchBook for Design, Mudbox for sculpting, Maya and Max for 3D content with animation, and intake modules for photogrammetry. So they are covering all the bases by giving you everything under one title, collection or subscription. Some of the tools seem the same, like Max and Maya but it's really in case you use or prefer one over the other. It's a matter of when or how you got started in 3D, and there's career migration. Maya users are generally not Max users but Max users to also be Maya users. It depends on what studios you've worked for or what hardware you owned. It is simply a matter that Autodesk owns both and got it like that. So you don't even have to take your pick. In general, Max was games and Maya was film but since Autodesk bought both, they are intertwined now. If you want to see a sample of the full workflow, here's Daryle Obert, for production specifications. (https://youtu.be/KevxDpO_0kU).
I still remember the day Autodesk called me for a paid interview where I helped them with naming "Entertainment Creation Suite". I added the word "Premium" to their title (no...Really I did). This collection is a similar packaging. However, this goes from concept drawing with SketchBook Pro, to capturing real-world objects with a camera as 3D scan data with ReCap, to resculpt with Mudbox on down the line with animation in Max/Maya and to output for VR/AR or rendered images for film. This YouTube video is a sizzle reel for the workflow chart, Acquisition: (sketch or scan) to production (Maya, Max) with sculpting for both in Mudbox and finally render in Arnold or realtime render in AR/VR. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkBsnFUIgwc). Arnold is amazing. I don't do a lot of rendering but it's very evident to see why Maya integrated it instead of Mental Ray.
I am a Motion Capture or MoCap artist/performer with strong affiliation in a University Robotics Lab which uses a Vicon MoCap system. Maya handles motion-capture well but MotionBuilder is "King of Mocap". Not to break my arm patting myself on the back, but I sculpt 3D creatures for National Fine Art Museums, from Taiwan to the Guggenheim. As a shameless blurb as that may be, I said that to say "MotionBuilder is one of my most joyous production savvy experiences as an artist/animation. I sculpt the character, then put on a MoCap suite with glowing ping-pong balls or trackable reflective markers and make the character move. One day, I'm a space alien, next day I'm a dancing pig. Yes, I'm a dancing pig! What have you done with your life? (LOL). To top it off, Autodesk also offers a repository of customizable characters. So now I don't have to sculpt each character. I can be an Ogre, zombie, policeman or fireman. MotionBuilder and Character Generator are a great match. When I started it would take months to make a character and it still does depending on the project. However, nowadays, with Character Generator, it can take less than 30 minutes. Autodesk has a library of characters that can be custom built with great precision and detail. Yes, a character moving and grooving in moments not months.
As always, as an independent 3D content creator, I stress tutorials, online training, and video tutorials. There's ample resources available with PluralSight and Gnomon to name a few. These are the Glory Days of 3D Graphics. Dive In. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Another one of my preferences is that I don't particularly appreciate working online because of hacking and cybersecurity. So I wouldn't say I like the idea of having subscriptions or being online to get work done as in the case of ReCap. I'm sure there's better computing processing in the Cloud but I just don't like it. I do understand the need for cloud computing power and I am currently trying out a VPN service for the first time today. This is no fault of Autodesk. Autodesk just partnered up with Weta Digital (LOTR's) so online is the way some technologies are going. But, I prefer when computers are closed personal systems. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
