3ds max alternatives?

[andybot_cg]

While it sounds tempting at first it leaves a whole lot of costly things out of the loop. Support, maintenance, QA and alike. In addition everytime i decide to give blender another try i de-install it pretty quickly. It's not anywhere near what i'd want in any way.

I had the same reaction with Blender a few times. I think post version 2.5 they are getting it mostly right. If you haven't tried it lately, you should give it another shot

[Donald2B]

For what it's worth i think the past few updates have been pretty good. it's so much more stable than it's ever been & the viewports are amazing now.

I agree 100%

I am just now upgrading to 2013 and I have had very positive experience with the past two versions of Max. I am much happier now than I have been in a LONG time. The stability and viewport improvements alone have been great.

It's impossible to please everyone. People asked for a major overhaul of the Max Core...so they start doing it, and those same people are now complaining that it doesn't work like it used to?

I have used just about everything out there: SoftImage, Maya, Lightwave, Max, Blender, Modo, Houdini, C4d, Blender, Animation Master, Rhino, Sketchup, etc. and they all have their issues. I prefer the workflow Max provides me over the other packages. What I have learned from using all of these different packages? They basically all do the same thing. The tools may vary a little from here to there, but for the most part the fundamentals are the same regardless of what 3D package you use.

For me, I find myself constantly coming back to Max and that tends to be my base package.

I guess I am in the minority here in that I like the direction and that each new release has been better than the last. YMMV.

[Morne]

I had the same reaction with Blender a few times. I think post version 2.5 they are getting it mostly right. If you haven't tried it lately, you should give it another shot

In 2005/2006 I gave Blender a serious try in an attempt to switch from Max. My wrists still have scars where I was chewing...

But you're making me curious now to see the LATEST developments...

[bardo]

I'm not a blender fan and I'm not so skilled with it but from what I've learned until now I can say it could be a cheap solution for some kind of jobs.

Obviously has a different workflow to 3dsmax and it's necessary to reset yourself...

Realistically, at the moment, I think it's not a full replacer of 3dsmax but it's a good piece of software and I think to continue to study it in my spare time.

[andybot_cg]

I'm not a blender fan and I'm not so skilled with it but from what I've learned until now I can say it could be a cheap solution for some kind of jobs.

Obviously has a different workflow to 3dsmax and it's necessary to reset yourself...

Realistically, at the moment, I think it's not a full replacer of 3dsmax but it's a good piece of software and I think to continue to study it in my spare time.

To me, it's somewhat analogous to using Gimp or Inkscape instead of Photoshop and Illustrator. Yes, you can do a whole lot with it, but it's not quite on the same level as the industry leading commercial standard. It's worth a look, but certainly not something to chew your wrists over

[tammo]

I tried to understand the Z brush UI several times and always failed in the end.

To be honest i am pretty happy with max since i discovered the swiftloop tool in max2012.
This tool multiplied my modeling speed and it wasn't even advertised as a new feature.

I hotkeyed it to "X" and use the tool together with alt shift ctrl buttons to work with edge loops.

You can see it in action on the evermotion site.
Its used in the three part tutorial about those houses.

If you still want to move away from adsk products you will have a problem to work with other studios.
Most of them work with max or maya and file conversion never works as advertised.
Finding other freelancers to help with your projects is also much more difficult,
if you don't use mainstream apps.

[AJ Jefferies]

To be honest i am pretty happy with max since i discovered the swiftloop tool in max2012.
This tool multiplied my modeling speed and it wasn't even advertised as a new feature.

Probably because it was new in 2010 (and part of Polyboost before that)

[RE:FORM_STUDIOS]

Ok, how about this.
Someone should develop more 3d nodes for Nuke such that a 3d app can exist within the nuke UI. Nuke is solid, I love the interface and the adaptability, it's no nonsense, and it's fast.
Vlado, any plans for bringing vray to nuke?
Happy days!

[instinct]

As much as i love Nuke. The 3D Implementation is far from being usable as a general 3D app. For lookdev and rendering ? Maybe, but you're prolly better of getting Katana in that case.

I am not sure i want that for all 3D tasks actually tho. Definitely for Lighting/Shading/Rendering. But for datawrangling? *shudder*

In addition the Viewport is pretty slow and does not really offer a lot. Bringing VRay to nuke is pretty possible i guess.

Regards,
Thorsten

[glorybound]

I'm curious, why doesn't Rhino get more kudos from people? can't Rhino do what MAX can, minus the animation?

[AJ Jefferies]

I'm curious, why doesn't Rhino get more kudos from people? can't Rhino do what MAX can, minus the animation?

They're completely different beasts. If you're working purely in product/arch viz then I can see Rhino working well as a replacement, but Rhino is predominantly for modelling & as a result there are hundreds of things that Rhino can't do that Max can.

For example, if you were visualising a bottle & the client wanted dew/sweat drops on the glass - in 3ds Max there are multiple ways you could do this (pflow, displacement, scatter, forest pack, object painter...etc.) but in Rhino it would be a huge headache. Likewise if you were doing arch viz & wanted to populate your scene with plantlife - trees, grass, shrubbery...etc. then this would be nigh on impossible with Rhino.

I know a lot of you guys are working predominantly in arch viz, so I realise I'm approaching this from a different perspective but for me personally Max is still a fantastic 'swiss army knife' package. I appreciate that the changes they're making might be causing disruption to your particular workflows & that there are strong alternatives out there that are geared more to what you do, but for me personally I'd be absolutely lost without all the fantastic poly modelling tools, modifiers, 3rd party plugins...etc. the Max has.

Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely keeping an strong eye on Modo, but I'm also very aware that it has the luxury of being (relatively) 'new', so people are forgiving of it's comparative faults. The more popular a package becomes, the more diverse it's user base becomes. The more diverse the user base, the more their needs differ & before you know it you'll no longer be able to please everyone.