How about Blender? Its FREE!!! http://www.blender.org/. Here is an example of what it can do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HomAZcKm3Jo.

-Gabe

Neither is better than the other.  Maya was created for very large scale projects and its cost reflects it.  3DS Max was made for large scale projects as well but not as large as Maya was intended for.  Maya has a very steep learning curve for the beginner.

Bless me Bobbym for I have sinned! It has been months since my last post and my email account died and I had to start a new account on MIF.

Anyway down to business.

Blender has a very good Lattice-Boltzman based fluidFX system which is considerably faster to use then the Navier-Stokes fluids in Maya.
Personally I've been using Maya for nearly 6yrs and use Max for access to Krakatoa. I don't think that Max is any less powerful
than Maya they are developed by the same company and share a lot of technologies.

Maya does on the other hand have something that Max does not and that is Mel and C++ API. These allow you do completely redesign
the way the program looks and to a certain extent operate so that it is bespoke to your requirements and it is for this reason alone why
people say it is more powerful. That was originally the reason why I started learning more maths, though I eventually found that the maths
was far more interesting and rewarding than learning how to code for an API. Unless its libCinder

Last edited by DaveRobinsonUK1 (2011-12-02 17:04:46)

Hi Bobby

It's excellent to be back.

I completely agree with you in needing maths more than ever. Without it there is only a certain amount you can do
with a computer. Making database/business programs is boring and certainly not why I got into computing.

Stiffanbond.

I am a professional animator with 7 years professional experience in the feature film, TV and video games industry have to say that both programs are fantastic and very powerful. I have used both extensively and am an expert in both programs.

As an animator, I find Maya's tools quicker for the animation workflow needed due to a more responsive f-curve/graph editor and great gimbal lock fixing tools. Rigging in Maya is light years beyond Max. You can do the same end job and get the same end product out of both applications, however for Animation and Rigging, Maya's open nature lets you do more complex tasks more easily. Max is kinda dumbed down and a bit limiting in comparison.

Typically Max is used more for games and Maya more for film. But this isn't always the case by any means. I got into the games industry by learning Max and then I quickly taught myself Maya's core anim tools in a month for a particular TV anim job. In short, once you know one program, you could switch fairly quickly between jobs. So just pick 1 of the two and go for it!

If you want to write tools rather than animate, then i'd definitely go with Maya. The reason Film and big studio's use Maya is because of its open nature. They use MEL Script, Python and the C++ API to pretty much overhaul the application to their studios needs. Max is a lot more closed in and although MAXScript is easy to learn and write, I personally find it quite limiting. Max is quicker to get something up and working, but Maya uses more hardcore style programming methods which lends itself to large complex systems that you would find in a Major studio.

I hope this helps!