Expert: Andre Hickman - 9/9/2008

Question
My 16 year old daughter is interested in graphic arts as a career. We have purchased a student version of Maya. As we live in country nsw help is hard to find. Do you know of any school holiday courses that would help her get started. The Canberra Institute of Technology are offering what seems to be the ideal course (during the school holidays) but it is based on 3D Studio Max. We understand that Maya is the industry standard and would love to find her a similar oportunity on Maya.Thank You.

Answer
Hi Suzanne,

Maya is the industry standard for a lot of things, but it is not the all-end-all.  I am a 3d Max guru (lol...by self-definition), and they are both owned by the same company now.  The difference between the two (and it is a very relative difference to how much you know already) is that Maya is geared towards movie animation, and 3d max is somewhat geared towards gaming.  

But trust me, I use Max for all kinds of things, including character animation, special effects, particles and the like.  It has been used in plenty of movies too.  

Right now, I'd suggest you go with which ever one is readily available to you.  As an entry level student, just about everything that she is able to learn in one program can be translated to the other.  Most 3D apps are like that.  Master one, then translate your understanding of 3D animation to the others.  It's not really about which program she learns, it's about gaining an understanding of 3D animation.  You'll find that most of the major production studios have actually developed their own non-commercial 3D software to create their movies, that you can only access and use if you work for them.

You learn 3D animation, then translate the skills that you acquire to the toolset that is available.

...in the end, my suggestion is if there is a course available, TAKE IT!  For right now, assume there is no difference between Max and Maya.  She will be learning on Max's toolset in the class during holidays, but then she can take what she has learned, do a little research for tutorials on the web to translate the knowledge to how to accomplish the same thing in Maya, and then learn them both!  

If you want to see a few things that I have done in Max (if you are not persuaded) check my galleries link at andrehickman dot com. It's mostly logo animation, etc. but the key is to first have a vision...an idea...then find the tools to make it work!

Cheers,
Andre