Maya Annoys Me A Lot!

[3D_CG]

Originally Posted by BillS

It doesn't matter what or where. As long as you are a student and have a student ID. Just looked doesn't cost a cent and is good for 3 years.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...12&id=14185424

Just pick your software.

wow
Maya and 3DMax 2012
free
wow
downloading

cool

[3D_CG]

I don't know what i should do with them????
I know LightWave inside and out..
wow
might have to tinker with them
I just wish there GUI's where like Lightwave's It would so much easier to navigate them..

IMHO

[iczer]

Originally Posted by 3D_CG

Who did u take classes from??

It was a Community College here in Ann Arbor Michigan, WCC (Washtenaw Community College) http://www.wccnet.edu

[3D_CG]

Ok I downloaded them ALL...

wow

I guess i have to pick one of em

lets try 3dmax first..

[TimMehmet]

If you use maya do yourself a favour and pick this up aswell they make all the diference to modelling.
http://draster.com/nex-1.5/overview.html

[NanoGator]

Maya's a strange beast. I use it in conjunction with Lightwave. I'd prefer to build a building in Lightwave and a city in Maya. Not sure if that helps.

[Jason T]

Originally Posted by Kerem

Here's the issue I am having. I'm using Nvidia GT520 with most recent driver. Maya always offers new issues no matter what... I'm sure if I solve this one there'll be another one come up.

And that "glitch" stays in the screen while using hotbox so makes it impossible to read. But the VIEWCUBE is awesome! :-/

Do you have a Wacom tablet by any chance?
We saw the same issue at work and it took us a while to work out that it was the Wacom Virtual HID Driver. Just go into the Win 7 Device Manager and Disable the Virtual HID. Reboot and the problem should go away.
Alternatively, turn Aero on and select an Aero theme. That seems to sort it too.

[BillS]

Originally Posted by TimMehmet

If you use maya do yourself a favour and pick this up aswell they make all the diference to modelling.
http://draster.com/nex-1.5/overview.html

Wow..that is as close as I've seen to the tweak tool in XSI but in another package.

[TimMehmet]

Originally Posted by BillS

Wow..that is as close as I've seen to the tweak tool in XSI but in another package.

I know! Glad it got picked up in this plugin at least, vanilla maya feels like being forced to build a fancy modern house with stone tools.What would be best is if everyone just realised XSI was awesome and it became industry standard

[Kerem]

I solve the problem rolling back to my old tools. And I decided to keep using them.

I had a strong desire to learn Maya and Max and I was working part time and sometimes for free on my friend's office here in Istanbul just for that. And struggled a lot with working long hours... feeling myself owe them because I have access to highend software and training material through them etc (they even have CG Academy, 3D Palace, DT and Gnomon stuff and updating monthly). And most of the time I had to do the stuff I don't like to do and end up with headaches and back pains. I felt that I'm miserable...

And I decided to be free and work only for myself as a freelancer. I have a couple of books and DVDs and a lot of free tutorials for C4D, Modo, Vue and Zbrush at my "home office". I have previous versions and don't have budget to update all of them (except Zbrush of course) but its not a problem. I feel that I no longer try to be someone else...

To be honest I realized I was trying to be Alex Alvarez But I realized I can only be happy and successful if I can be myself a hundred percent.

It may sound stupid a lot to most of you guys and I don't know if anyone of you go through that phase or not. But I understand that I'm tired of following other artists footsteps and finally decided strongly to walk on my own path... I believe this will be good and right thing to do for me. And maybe I can have a life as a byproduct

[BillS]

I understand perfectly. That is the main reason that I never even attempted to go pro. I've never liked the idea of working on what someone else wants me to work on. I do what I want when I want to do it. Modelling to me is almost zen like. I unwind by playing around with it. The other apps. No one here can help but understand that. EVERYONE gets app envy... and the funny part is that its usually one or two tools that you see in a demo that leads us all to thing that the grass actually IS greener over there! So you get the trial and visit their forums and find out.... There are just as many people bitching about what it can't do and what is broken and what didn't get included.

Me personally.. I'm like a software magpie. When something new and shiny comes out... I must have it. Hell I saw the thread about the dreadnaught done in sketchup and sure enough. Downloaded it and installed it for a look see. Will I ever use it again. Not likely and in a couple months I won't even remember why I installed it. So stick to the apps that you have time invested in. If you see something that is an amazing new tool. Figure out how to do it in your app. You'll be more comfortable and happy. I've settled on 3 main apps. Lightwave, XSI and Modo. Nice part is that they all load in Lightwave files. So exchange is a snap. If it wasn't for LWCAD.. I could likely prune that down to Modo and XSI.

[Kerem]

Originally Posted by BillS

I understand perfectly. That is the main reason that I never even attempted to go pro. I've never liked the idea of working on what someone else wants me to work on. I do what I want when I want to do it. Modelling to me is almost zen like. I unwind by playing around with it. The other apps. No one here can help but understand that. EVERYONE gets app envy... and the funny part is that its usually one or two tools that you see in a demo that leads us all to thing that the grass actually IS greener over there! So you get the trial and visit their forums and find out.... There are just as many people bitching about what it can't do and what is broken and what didn't get included.

Me personally.. I'm like a software magpie. When something new and shiny comes out... I must have it. Hell I saw the thread about the dreadnaught done in sketchup and sure enough. Downloaded it and installed it for a look see. Will I ever use it again. Not likely and in a couple months I won't even remember why I installed it. So stick to the apps that you have time invested in. If you see something that is an amazing new tool. Figure out how to do it in your app. You'll be more comfortable and happy. I've settled on 3 main apps. Lightwave, XSI and Modo. Nice part is that they all load in Lightwave files. So exchange is a snap. If it wasn't for LWCAD.. I could likely prune that down to Modo and XSI.

Thank you Bill! I couldn't agree more about the software envy concept. I think that's what was happening to me. Years ago in 2004 while I was doing 3D scenes with Vue as a hobby, I decided to stop using stock models come with it and start to do my own. C4D was my choice because it seemed easy and friendly like Bryce & Vue. That all started and I choose it with intuition - not even with knowledge.. just because I loved it. And turned out that I was right. It was really perfect to all my needs including client work! And what happened with 3ds max and maya was just an envy on my end. I could do same or better stuff with C4D already.

So I choose my path too because in the end we truly get to choose one. I'm also happy that I feel now I can stop struggling and start doing cool stuff.

[Mook]

Simply put, don't use Maya 2012, IMO. It is more unstable and unpredictable than Maya 2008, which is odd considering it's supposed to be three versions newer. Maya 2011 is the best I've found, I have it at home and at work and use it whenever I can. We are supposed to use 2012 at work but given how often it crashes I find myself wishing to swap back to 2011 whenever I can, certainly for bigger models.
It's amazing the amount of simple, everyday run of the mill commands you can use to crash 2012 without even thinking about it; things like using a lattice on an object with Smooth Mesh Preview, then trying to delete history to get rid of the lattice, and bang! There goes Maya. Even just regular old delete history does the same sometimes, which makes things awkward because I nearly always delete history right before saving, so it always crashes right before I save and I end up doing the same 10 minutes of work over again.
If you can get the trouble with your 2011 sorted, I highly recommend sticking with that. I noticed someone else mentioned using the Aero theme as a possible fix, I've got the default windows Aero theme running on this computer and have no trouble running 2011, so I'm inclined to agree with them.

[BillS]

What I really find funny whenever I look into other packages is this. Sure its got a wizz-bang tool for X and Y. But at the end of the day (modeling only here.) It doesn't matter what app I'm in. I'd be willing to bet that there is only really 10 must have tools. They are the ones that you use over and over no matter what app. Then there is the other 8 or so that are godsends... but could do without in a pinch. They just make it easier. They are all very very basic and every app has them under one name or another. The rest is really just fluff. That is why we say that its the modeler that makes the model, not the app. Try keeping track some day when you're modelling of how many tools you ACTUALLY use. You'll likely be suprised by how few there are.

[BillS]

Oh and I've got Maya and Max 2012 installed and never seen that mess... but I seldom use them. They were just more a curiosity and helped with converting now.

[JimCrafton]

Bill I've noticed that too, but...
While Houdini has a roughly comparable base feature set to Modo, I've found that the actual workflow and the speed at which you can work (once you've learned the basics of each app) is *very* different. Modo wins hands down in terms of speed and ease of use (in terms of modeling). I don't have any idea how it compares to XSI since I haven't really used it yet.