I've never used Maya, so I won't attempt to influence any one in which way is better. But I thought you might enjoy this video on Blender vs. Maya to choose for yourself.

I have used Maya but between the rising cost and how far Blender has come from economic stand point Blender works just fine plus my learning began with Blender so giving up Maya was not that big of a hardship

Maya has some advantages in the context of professional studio performance. We can never forget that it's been used for extremely high-end character animation and VFX for decades now, compared to Blender. Fewer bugs with Maya, more robust rigging and animation tools, etc. It isn't really fair to compare the two on a professional studio-level right now, but for individuals who are using it on a smaller network or small studio, Blender is way more cost-efficient and quite surprisingly powerful for most general-purpose needs. I come from a 3dsmax background and have been able to substitute Blender for almost everything I used to do in 3dsmax over time quite nicely.

We need to be careful when judging applications like this through "comparison" videos. You have to take into account the skill level of the user, the proficiency of the user in either application and the needs of that user. I would say if you are NOT involved in a production studio that relies heavily on teams of artists working together under tight deadlines and budgets, then Blender is probably a good alternative. You won't get the direct support that Autodesk can offer a studio to help get a project completed if troubles arise, but that's the risk you take with open source software, and you may have a special programmer or python specialist on the team to accomidate that need anyway.

I've been using Blender since version 2.4x (2.45 IIRC), so have gone through a lot of changes and updates over the years.

I was able to get Maya 2016 and 2018 with an Educational License, and took a couple of online courses, and once I was familiar with the UI, I found it a lot easier to work with than I thought it would be, but I'm a Blender user for too long, and as Lux pointed out, a lot has been upgraded in Blender over the years, so it's definitely more cost effective for those who are not working with large animation studios.

Truthfully, I like them both, but since being a full-time retiree for over 12 years, I can't see myself ever paying the full cost for Maya, which is one of the (if not the) most expensive 3D production softwares out there.

I started out on Blender, but I don't remember what version. But I had been on Wings3D before and I found that I liked Blender better. I had to learn Blender from scratch though, and I still haven't learned everything i need to know about 2.79!

EClark1894 posted at 4:26PM Thu, 29 April 2021 - #4418016

I started out on Blender, but I don't remember what version. But I had been on Wings3D before and I found that I liked Blender better. I had to learn Blender from scratch though, and I still haven't learned everything i need to know about 2.79!

At this stage, I'd highly recommend abandoning any learning you may have left on 2.79 in favor of either 2.83 or 2.9x series of Blender. With each passing release candidate, Blender is progressing so far away from the workflow we once had with the 2.7x series it's almost counterproductive to keep learning on it. Hotkeys, UI, tools, workflows, everything have changed drastically since then, and it will continue to change now with 3.0 on the horizon in alpha dev. The more comfortable someone gets with 2.79 at this point, the harder it will become when they finally make the transition to 2.9x or 3.0.

It's understandable though if your current hardware just doesn't support the latest iterations of Blender devs.

LuxXeon posted at 6:37PM Thu, 29 April 2021 - #4418019

EClark1894 posted at 4:26PM Thu, 29 April 2021 - #4418016

I started out on Blender, but I don't remember what version. But I had been on Wings3D before and I found that I liked Blender better. I had to learn Blender from scratch though, and I still haven't learned everything i need to know about 2.79!

At this stage, I'd highly recommend abandoning any learning you may have left on 2.79 in favor of either 2.83 or 2.9x series of Blender

Oh, I will. I already have. I haven't even learned how to do some basic things like creating a sphere or a cone, or a plane in 2.92. I'll get around to it, though.

Every makes some really good points and one thing I am pleased with our group here is not into the whole this is better than that or bashing one software is superior over another that goes on enough in so many other places. I do agree with one of LuxXeon good points with the rapid development of Blender to still be learning 2.79 would be counter productive then jumping into the pool grab 2.8 or 2.9 and start running with it yes for some of us having to relearn a few new hot keys or figuring out where they moved something will become second nature in no time.

I agree completely with both Luxx and Lobo

The value of Maya is the 24 hour tech support with the ability to call Autodesk at 3:15 am and have a live person Walk you through any software issue even writing/delivering a custom Melscript to patch your copy of Maya if necessary.

Also I have Three PC's. My main workstation is one year old.

But I also run the latest stable Blender on 6 year old Toshiba laptop (with 4 gigs of ram and an AMD integrated graphics card) where I test add-ons and do some light hard surface modeling with Hardops &box cutter.

If your hardware is older/lesser than this, you are probably locked out of any modern 3DCC and even hobbiest Character programs Like Poser or Daz studio as well as stuck at the vestigial dead end of Pre 2.8+ versions of Blender.

There are sometimes die hards, over on the Blenderartist forum who occasionally post ranting screeds against the Blender foundation for "adandoning the old guard "etc . and that is fine, as is staying with Pre 2.8+ for comfort bubble reasons.

But just know that trying to participate in the many online Blender communities for help, will likely be an increasingly frustrating experience .

I have to agree with wolf359 when it comes to getting help or advice in some Blender forums especially where there are many diehard fans can be very frustrating but that doesn't just hold true in Blender some fo this hold true for other software packages I had an License for Lightwave and decided to take a chance and upgrade during one of their great promotional only to get the bubble burst to find that one seems the company has now been sold and any further development is pretty much dead in the water and tutorials or learning resources are at best older than 6 years old and nothing really covers any of the new features even compatibility with Poser and Daz which use to be decent is now worse and more difficult than Blender can ever be lol and not knocking Lightwave it use to be a great software package and my favorite Scifi show's 3D effects were done in Lightwave but my point is each package has it strengths and weakness and Blender has really hit the gym running beef up what use to be one of its biggest weakness and that is getting new users interested and making it more user friendly IMHO

When I finished my six year animated film project with Daz Iclone& C4D I was so desperate to replace my Aging 10 year old version of C4D, that I aquired a second hand copy of Lightwave 2015.

I had actually established an .obj/MDD based Character animation pipeline from Daz studio to lightwave similar to the the .obj/MDD based pipeline I had used with Daz studio to C4D. and the Lightwave Viewport render(VPR) was a huge improvement over maxons Abysmal open GL display.

Then I gave Blender 2.8.2 a try after many adandoned attempt s with the previous versions.( 2.4-2.7)

I quickly established a Daz clothing modeling workflow in Blender identical to my old C4D work flow(actually superior) and EEVEE's viewport display closed the deal.

Blender 2.8x+ is the most exciting thing to happen to me creatively, since getting into 3D.

I have spent nearly $300 in pro ad-dons this past year

I have since left the Daz genesis eco system entirely for Iclone/CC3 for Characters and create all of my clothing and content for the CC3 avatars

However I consider myself to be primarily a Blender user.

Blender has definitely opened up a whole new realm of creative possibilities to an entire generation of content creators or like-minded creative individuals who may have never otherwise had the financial means to access such advanced technology. That's probably the most important contribution Blender has made to the world of animation and graphic art in general. In previous decades, only people who were pursuing a career in VFX or game creation, or people with a large disposable income and time on their hands were capable of accessing this type of powerful CG creation software.

Maya, 3dsmax, Softimage XSI, and to some extent Lightwave 3D and C4D were really the only players at the highest end of commercial CG software, and we all know the prices of most of those packages was extremely intimidating for many people. Nowadays, I hear Blender being mentioned by young people as the first name they think of when they think of 3D modeling or CG animation. Years ago, most young people couldn't even name a CG animation software offhand, and Photoshop might have been the only household name in digital art in general. Blender isn't quite a household name like Photoshop is, but I'm noticing it is becoming much more recognized than some of the huge high-end software names have ever been. Maya might have been the only other software in CG animation that came close to being a household name simply because people have heard it being mentioned in the extra features on the DVD or Blue Ray of their favorite movie blockbusters, but I think Blender has surpassed that in recent years.

Times have changed.

Just came across this last night the fact that Blender is now being used not only for its modeling tools but that the VFX tools are making such strides

"The Emergence", Indie Short-Film with Blender-made VFX

That was very well done, though not necessarily my type of short film. Though I did enjoy the ending when the creature hatched, and flew off.

Blender has definitely opened up a whole new realm of creative possibilities to an entire generation of content creators or like-minded creative individuals who may have never otherwise had the financial means to access such advanced technology. That's probably the most important contribution ..... Maya might have been the only other software in CG animation that came close to being a household name simply because people have heard it being mentioned in the extra features on the DVD or Blue Ray of their favorite movie blockbusters, but I think Blender has >surpassed that in recent years.

I have been into 3D since the late 1990's starting with poser 2 and Bryce 2 I was still persuing my carreer as Graphic Designer for print .

I remember well watching & re-watching those "making of " segments on the "Wrath of Khan"and other DVD's and being so envious of those guys working at ILM with access to such amazing software.

Not only is the current Blender a good Choice financialy but the turmoil in the GPU market caused by this "cryptomining" business is not only affecting video gamers but anyone who has commited to a rendering software that is only functional with a GPU ( Daz IRay )

There was a guy, in one of my Blender face book user groups, who was testing the new Xcycles on a low spec laptop with only intergrated CPU graphics capability

Sure his performance was probably crap!!! but its good to know people with limited hardware budgets wont be totally locked out of Blender 3.x

Unlike those poor souls needing an unobtainable NVIDIA RTX card just to even render a still image in other softwares.

wolf359 posted at 1:33PM Sun, 02 May 2021 - #4418195

Unlike those poor souls needing an unobtainable NVIDIA RTX card just to even render a still image in other softwares.

Hmmm, I wonder . . . when I got my new-ish Alienware laptop (Thanksgiving 2019), I purposely told the Dell salesman I couldn't use the RTX card with at least one of the software apps I use daily (Poser11), so he gave me a GTX 1660. As it turned out, I "still" couldn't render with my GPU until Poser11 was upgraded to accept the newer cards, because the GTX 16xx series is the same Touring architecture as the RTX 20xx cards that were out at the time. I haven't looked, but I wonder of the GTX 16xx series of cards are as unobtainable as the nVidia RTZ cards. Then again, the RTX series have even newer 30xx cards, so it's possible those are the ones that are unobtainable.

Miss B

As far as I know all RTX 30xx series are almost impossible to obtain Newwegg.com is doing a daily Neweeg Shuffle that has been showing some success for people getting the newer RTX 30xx series cards you can look at the link and gather some info I have been trying it but have not hit on the particular card I am willing to spend on but it might help there are suppose to be some new RTX 3080 Ti being release closer to the end of May but fear they will get snatched up as quickly as all others hope this helps

I have an RTX 2070 Super in my workstation, but my son has a GTX 1660 Ti in his gaming rig. I've run Cycles on the latest builds in both machines. Obviously, with the GTX 1660, I can't take advantage of the Optix RT features, but the Cuda drivers still work well. The speed difference in certain scenes can be substantial (Optix vs. Cuda), mostly due to the fact that I can get sufficient samples about twice as fast on the RTX card to engage the Optix denoising. On the GTX, it takes a bit longer to get sufficient samples to use the denoiser, and I usually use the Intel OpenImageDenoiser node instead of the Optix AI. I think The Intel node is great for denoising, but it definitely takes longer to get the samples on the Cuda driver than the RT/Optix.

It looks like Blender will be dropping the OpenCL device drivers in 3.0 releases and Cycles X. Apparently, they are just too difficult to program for and less optimal than the Nvidia solutions (Optix, Cuda). They should be offering a different render device alternative for AMD users though.

LuxXeon posted at 6:08PM Sun, 02 May 2021 - #4418211

I have an RTX 2070 Super in my workstation, but my son has a GTX 1660 Ti in his gaming rig. I've run Cycles on the latest builds in both machines. Obviously, with the GTX 1660, I can't take advantage of the Optix RT features, but the Cuda drivers still work well. The speed difference in certain scenes can be substantial (Optix vs. Cuda), mostly due to the fact that I can get sufficient samples about twice as fast on the RTX card to engage the Optix denoising. On the GTX, it takes a bit longer to get sufficient samples to use the denoiser, and I usually use the Intel OpenImageDenoiser node instead of the Optix AI. I think The Intel node is great for denoising, but it definitely takes longer to get the samples on the Cuda driver than the RT/Optix.

Yes, I noticed this, but since I don't do final renders in Blender (unless working on one of your fabulous tutorials ), I'm not too worried about this. That could change at some point with Blender 3 and Cycles X, but I'm not worrying about it now.

Miss B posted at 1:31PM Mon, 03 May 2021 - #4418196

wolf359 posted at 1:33PM Sun, 02 May 2021 - #4418195

I haven't looked, but I wonder of the GTX 16xx series of cards are as unobtainable as the nVidia RTZ cards. Then again, the RTX series have even newer 30xx cards, so it's possible those are the ones that are unobtainable.

Yeah, it's the RTX 30xx series that are virtually unobtainable right now. It's partly due to the high demand during this pandemic but mostly due to massive demand by bitcoin miners again. The RTX 20xx series or the GTX 1660 shouldn't be that hard to get, aside from some out-of-stock notices due to delays in deliveries and such.

If you're a gamer, then AMD cards are probably the smart move these days, as they have some newer cards that blow away Nvidia on a price-per-performance ratio. However, as content creators, Nvidia cards are a must. There's just no comparison. CUDA and Optix technology are just far easier to program for and offer the best acceleration in most software packages. Blender being the primary one for me, but also Adobe and some video production software too.