From: 2k Suisei
In comparison to programs like ZBrush and Mudbox, Maya's sculpting tools are very poor.
I'm really not sure why anyone would think otherwise.
I've never used Mudbox, but it looks cool. I've also never used Zbrush, but I have seen it in action, and it's definitely cool. I've been meaning to start using Zbrush, actually. I just haven't found the time to get into it.
Anyway, it doesn't have to mean Maya is bad, just because those programs are good. They can all be good. Just because one particular tool out of thousands in a platform is not as refined as the equivalent tool in a couple of programs that happen to specialize with that tool as their primary function doesn't mean the platform's version must be "poor" or "totally crap", as you put it. I've personally find that Maya's sculpt brush works very, very well, especially if used with a tablet. It' does it's job exactly as I expect it to, no better, no worse, entirely predictable and easily controllable.
Yes, I can easily see that Zbrush's brushes (whoa that sounds funny, "Zbrush's brushes"
are more powerful, but again, that's to be expected from a specialty program.
I think what you said below (which I'll address in a minute) about your struggle Maya's interface suggests that you must have missed something very basic and fundamental to how the whole thing works, and that's probably coloring your judgment about the sculpt brush too. If you're at all unclear on how to use it, especially if you think you're perfectly clear but really you're not, then of course it would be a natural reaction to assume it must be bad you think it's poor. Had you gotten the hang of the interface (brushes included), I think you'd be singing a very different tune right now.
(I don't know for certain if you're clear on the sculpt brush or not, obviously. I'm just saying it might be wise to make room for the possibility, especially since the interface as a whole isn't jiving with you. I hope that makes sense.)
From: 2k Suisei
When it comes to user interface, I don't really feel Maya is much better than Blender.
There is a small but solid minority of people who tend to say things like this. Whenever I run across it, I usually ask two questions. Did you watch the training videos, and did you go through all the introductory tutorials in the Help file when you started. 99% of the time, the answer is no to one or both. How about you, did you do those things?
From: 2k Suisei
I suspect you've been using Maya for so long that it's now natural to you.
I can see how that could be a natural assumption, but really, I've only been doing 3D for about 5 years now. I started with Maya 7, not Maya 1. Granted, I had the advantage of being in a class, rather than being completely on my own, but you want to know what Lesson 1 of that class was? It was "Hi. I'm your instructor. This is Maya. These are the training videos. Those are the Help tutorials. Now, by next class, everyone model something."
Yeah, I paid money for that.
In the instructor's defense, he did the right thing. A few weeks later, he proved his merit by actually teaching, but for those first several classes, he forced us to learn the basics on our own.
By the end of my first day, I'd created a semi-decent, newbie-quality model of my cell phone, complete with a flip animation. By the end of about a week and a half, I'd made my first actually realistic model, this one, of the wristwatch I had at the time:
That's all NURBS, by the way. If I remember correctly, the watch body was lofted from curves, and the band links are all deformed spheres. The hands were also lofted from curves. The face is just a plane with an texture on it I made in Illustrator and Photoshop.
99% of what I needed to know to make that watch came straight from the Help tutorials. There was nothing specific in there about "here's how you make a watch," of course, but the principles were all there. What it actually said was here's how you make a little chapel/gazebo looking thing. I just applied the same concepts to the watch.
It didn't take years of "getting comfortable" with the program; it was just a few days.
And that muscle memory thing I talked about, regarding the interface, that didn't take years either. Half the class was joking about it by our second session, which was all of 3 days after the first.
I really think the only difference between those who "get" Maya right away and those who don't is that the ones who get it were given the right introduction to it. "Watch these quick videos and follow those Help tutorials, and then use what you learned to make ____ by ____ day," is the best advice anyone can get. There were certainly plenty of people in that class who were (how can I put this?) not artistically gifted, and so didn't produce things that actually looked good, but I don't recall anyone struggling with the procedures of using the program itself. Pretty much everyone was able to use it well enough.
Seriously, I doubt that I, or anyone who was in that class, or any of the countless other people who have learned Maya quickly, are any smarter or better or more talented or more ANYTHING than you are. We're all just roughly the same mixed bags of god, bad, and ugly. I just think the rest of us probably had a better introduction to the program than you likely did is all.
From: 2k Suisei
The frustration I feel when using Blender is pretty much the same as when using Maya. They're very complicated programs with far too many options for their own good. Some users have been using them from version 1.0, this means they've grown with the programs and had time to slowly learn the new features that each version brings.
But for a new user they're far too complicated and often require reading tutorials to get anywhere. Yet there are many programs available that are so intuitive that a tutorial is never needed.
I'm really sorry to hear you've been frustrated and struggling. There's probably not a whole lot I can say to convince you that that's not the norm without it sounding like I'm insulting you somehow, so please believe that's not my intent when I say, really, that's not the norm.
Yes, Maya has thousands of features. That's why it's a platform. Where people run into trouble is when they think they need to learn them all. That's just not how it's supposed to work. What you do is you learn the basics (I'll strum that harp one more time; use the Help tutorials), you do a few projects, and you begin to specialize in those aspects of the platform that you are best suited for.
Me, I discovered pretty quickly that I'm not cut out to be an animator, for example. I can do it if I have to, and I can get fairly decent results, but it's not something I'll choose to do if I can avoid it, even though Maya's animation capabilities are superb. I'm also not a scripter, even though the lifeblood that runs through Maya's veins is its embedded scripting language, and if you know what you're doing with it, you can achieve truly amazing things. I'm not all that great at lighting and rendering, just sort of OK at it. And I barely know a thing about dynamics or physics solvers or expressions or a thousand other things you could pick out of the manual at random.
And that's all perfectly OK. I'm a modeler and a texture artist, and that's really it. I don't need to do all those other things for what I do. It's nice to have all that stuff there, so I can branch out and expand my abilities from time to time, and more importantly, so that I always have the option to work collaboratively with other Maya users who do specialize in other areas of the platform.
So, bottom line, don't worry about all the thousands of features. You don't have to know them all. Just worry about the ones that matter for your specific projects. It's kind of like swimming in the ocean. It doesn't matter that it's 2 miles deep. You're only ever gonna use the top 10 feet, so who cares? Let the fish be concerned with the rest.
From: 2k Suisei
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want to beat you to death with a Maya 2008 box.
Now, now. No need to get testy.
_____
Oh, on a side note, since we've been talking about the sculpt brush, here's the first thing I ever made with it:
That was during my second day with the program, if I remember correctly. It's silly and not really what anyone might call "good", I know, but it's got sentimental value. My first ever 3D character, you know, for whatever that's worth. I used that rendering as part of my logo for my freelance business for a few years. People always thought it was cute. The little guy's got sort of a certain charm, I think, even 5 years later.
Oh the memories.
