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Probably to stick with 3D Max. I really like 3D Max a lot. It was my tool of choice for about 18 years but, as I stopped doing much 3D professionally, I just de

by Wistar 5y ago

Probably to stick with 3D Max. I really like 3D Max a lot. It was my tool of choice for about 18 years but, as I stopped doing much 3D professionally, I just decided to give Blender a shot and, once I got over some of the weird UI, most of which is now fixed, I found that I liked it a lot.

Dracophoenix 5y ago
How did you get into doing 3D Max professionally? Have you used any other packages like Maya, Lightwave, or Alias's offerings way back when?
- Wistar 5y ago
  I started using 3D as a lark. I am a long-time on-line editor and VFX compositor and had access to 3D in the various studios I worked when commercial 3D packages became a thing, starting in about 1983 or so. More importantly, I had access to some amazingly good animators, modelers and 3D engineers of whom I could ask questions and who I could watch work (and annoy). They had a lot of downtime to talk because of rendering time. Several of these people are, today, legends in the field. In 1995 I started my own 3D animation, design and VFX studio. It was a Softimage house on SGI with a DEC Alpha render farm but I had a couple seats of 3D Max as well as Side-Effects Prisms and, later, Houdini. I have used Cubicomp 3D, Bosch FGS-4000, Vertigo, Wavefront, Alias|Wavefront, Softimage, Prisms, Houdini, Maya and 3D Max packages as well as the Rhino 3D Nurbs modeler and several other long-gone packages including a 3D solids system whose name I cannot recall. A 3D guru I am not, though. I regularly see stuff today that I just cannot imagine how in the hell was done and the insane skill levels involved in doing it. I will point out one thing that was common among the really good 3D practitioners: most of them are really good musicians in addition to being outstanding fine artists. The character animators generally had a drama background. Now, I just mostly play around, doing the occasional explainer video/animation pieces and elements, usually having to do with automotive and aviation technologies. My old-ass brain can't keep up any more.

by Wistar 5y ago

Dracophoenix 5y ago

How did you get into doing 3D Max professionally? Have you used any other packages like Maya, Lightwave, or Alias's offerings way back when?

Wistar 5y ago
I started using 3D as a lark. I am a long-time on-line editor and VFX compositor and had access to 3D in the various studios I worked when commercial 3D packages became a thing, starting in about 1983 or so. More importantly, I had access to some amazingly good animators, modelers and 3D engineers of whom I could ask questions and who I could watch work (and annoy). They had a lot of downtime to talk because of rendering time. Several of these people are, today, legends in the field. In 1995 I started my own 3D animation, design and VFX studio. It was a Softimage house on SGI with a DEC Alpha render farm but I had a couple seats of 3D Max as well as Side-Effects Prisms and, later, Houdini. I have used Cubicomp 3D, Bosch FGS-4000, Vertigo, Wavefront, Alias|Wavefront, Softimage, Prisms, Houdini, Maya and 3D Max packages as well as the Rhino 3D Nurbs modeler and several other long-gone packages including a 3D solids system whose name I cannot recall. A 3D guru I am not, though. I regularly see stuff today that I just cannot imagine how in the hell was done and the insane skill levels involved in doing it. I will point out one thing that was common among the really good 3D practitioners: most of them are really good musicians in addition to being outstanding fine artists. The character animators generally had a drama background. Now, I just mostly play around, doing the occasional explainer video/animation pieces and elements, usually having to do with automotive and aviation technologies. My old-ass brain can't keep up any more.