Blender vs. Maya vs. 3Ds Max

Doesn’t matter if you just started your 3D journey or are already working in the industry; you have undoubtedly heard about this software; today, I hope to help inform your decision!

Let’s start with Maya and 3Ds Max; they are both from Autodesk and are very similar; both can do professional modeling, texturing, and animation, however generally speaking 3Ds Max tool set is more focused on modeling and texturing than Maya’s tools, Maya while often used for modeling and texturing, has a more complex set of animation tools and therefore is wildly used in the animation industry.

Blender, on the other hand, is a generalist’s dream; it can do all of the above and more, like procedural modeling, procedural texturing, and motion graphics which got easier with the addition of geometry nodes, and generally speaking, has a broader community, because of the nature of Blender which is free and open source, the community is also very open, you’ll find tons of content, tutorials, how to’s, complete courses, in more volume and varied quality than the likes of Maya and 3Ds Max.

Basically, all 3 programs are professional-grade tools that can be used for creative work; if you’re just starting out and you don’t know if you want to be specialized at something or want to be a generalist, I would personally recommend Blender as it has tons of content online and will allow you to explore and do pretty much anything you want visually.

If you’re set on being an animator, for example, and you want to focus on that, then go to Maya; you’ll probably find enough on the web to get you started; try to get a student license as you can use it with no payments.

If you want to become a hard surface modeler, you can try 3Ds Max with a student license as well, or stick to Maya as their tools are good for that as well; there are even some more obscure workflows like using CAD programs to make a parametric mesh and later on, making a lower poly version of it.

Also worth noting is that modeling, animating, and texturing are skills; what you learn on one software can usually be applied to another; what changes is how to get the same result; the principles of animation are the same regardless if what you're doing 2D work on a paper or 3D work on a computer, the principles of the techniques don't change.

You can animate and model on Blender, especially at the beginner level you will likely not miss any special tools Maya or 3Ds may have, and if you do, there is expected a free or paid add-on that will add the functionality you need.

Blender is used by professionals in all industries; if you like to animate or model on it, there is no problem sticking to it.

The only significant exception, in my opinion, is texturing, especially if you want to paint a model like you do in Substance Painter or Mudbox; as of now, in Blender 3.5, you’ll have a better experience in texturing on those tools than on Blender.

As for why so many pros are moving to Blender, part of it is cost; Blender is 100% free, it requires no licenses, and there are no limits, which saves up a lot of money, but it makes no sense move to software that is not capable of doing your work even if it is free.

Thankfully Blender is potent and often more flexible than other tools as you can do a lot in a single program, especially considering the add-ons; this makes the workflow more efficient; you can sculpt, retopo, texture, build a scene, light it, and render, all in a Blender.

Many pros are moving because of costs and flexibility; a more extensive community also helps that change since those pros have tons of content to grasp the software and start creating with less fuzz.

Some people are also making a move simply because they prefer how Blender works and how to achieve specific results.

Whatever you choose, don't feel obligated to get shackled to it, these are tools, and we should strive to use the best tool for the job or the tool we are most comfortable with that can still get the job done.