   Maya Vs. 3dsmax (and question)
  This is not meant to be a flame thread, as i know it will eventualy become, but this is a simple opinionated question, and i would like it if somewhere down the line it did actualy get answered.  The question is this, which is better for polygon modeling, maya or 3dsmax.  For the longest time i have heard it was 3dsmax, but upon getting XP i have had numberous problems, and switched to maya.  Maya appears more streamlined, and i get much more done much quicker, but i have witnessed the difficulty in skinning objects properly, and the lack of the (flatten uv?) tool of 3dsmax (leading to an extra hour of setting up the UV''s.  Besides that, maya seems also difficult to create an exporter for.  What i am trying to do, is simply rip the polygons and UV''s every keyframe, which shouldent be that hard, but mayas internal systems is more complicated then it should be.  Is it worth it to spend the time to get the newest MAX, due to the texturing and exporting?  Opinions, ideas, comments, sudgestions, all are welcome. 
  I havent had chance to play with maya yet... but intend too fairly soon.. I''m a max guru so my opinion is biased...   I have heard that maya supports much better character creation/animation elements..    but I haven''t used it enough to be able to say...  my version of max 5.1 works fine on XP no problems in that respect...   ;  Please allow me to share what our small studio''s experience has been...Keep this in mind: We''re a small game studio, so we do -not- have a programmer who knows how to make exporters for 3DMax, which our artists are using. So we had to settle for those exporters we could DL that''d do the job.That alone caused problems due to the various 3DMax versions and mismatched exporter version. For the same reason, we''ve been ''stuck'' on the same 3DM version for the length of the project. (We''d lose those exporters that we know work well)3DMax''s stability (or lack thereof) through a network has caused no end of headaches to our artists, and so has its idiosyncracies.We''ve learned one thing for our next projects: We will NOT use 3DMax for character animation in the future. Milkshape does a much nicer, to-the-point job.  And our artists are so fed up with 3DMax that we''ll definitely evaluate Maya when we have a chance.If all you want is UV and polygon output by keyframe, you might want to look up Milkshape. Chances are you''ll even find an existing game format that''ll work for you AND that milkshape naturally exports to. =^.^=   Leaders and teachers should remember: It is best to offer others what they Need, not what they Want. ;  Actualy, im fortunate enough to have a copy of maya at my disposal, and as far as polygonal modeling goes, it is really good, and very streamlined.  And i would kind of like my own custom exporter as there may need to be additional information stored in the file. ;  i perfer mmaya,  i like it''s workflow and UI better then 3ds max,   but it''s really a matter of taste,  both will look the same in the end,   it''s just they sometimes have diferent ways of geting there;  Maya''s interface is a million times better than 3DS Max, and it''s also a much more multi-faceted product.    Once you learn the Maya interface, you''ll find no reason to ever go back to anything else.  If your engine/tools are worth a hell, the exporter should be good regardless of Maya or 3DS Max.    You can work with Alias|Wavefront and Discreet directly to get whatever you need working, both are pretty good with their customers.  Milkshape can''t do everything, and when you talk about major workflow you don''t want to have some drawn out complex tools base for every little thing.   The more you can entrust one tool to do the majority of the workflow, the better off you''ll be unless your criteria absolutely calls for the usage of many tools ( i.e. movie-making, effects stuff mostly ).   Also, you tend to keep better consistency by sticking to a solid tool -- IMO..zfod 