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Drew Butcher
33,160 PointsWhat about blender?
If I use Blender (which is FREE!) will these tutorials make sense?
3 Answers
Ryan Creason
11,600 PointsTreehouse is also offering a free 3 year subscription to Maya LT for our students! Check it out here.
John Steer-Fowler
Courses Plus Student 11,734 PointsHey Drew,
I don't see any reason why you cannot complete the tutorials using Blender.
However, be advised that the shortkeys and tips in the videos will not be relevant to Blender software.
Also, some of the features in Maya LT are not in Blender, but I think that everything covered in these courses can be made using Blender.
Patrick Cooney
12,216 PointsSo here's the thing about 3D modeling packages (speaking as someone who went to school for 3D animation and compositing). Most of them have similar tools but not always the exact same tools. Also the interfaces can be remarkably intimidating. The hardest part of 3D modeling isn't learning the concepts of modeling it's learning the interfaces and tools of your chosen 3D package. Also, Blender is a little clunky. As John said, shortcut keys and even the tools in these videos will not do you much good. I would skip right to the stuff on the various techniques. That said, once you see how to do something in Maya LT you're going to have to google the tool that you need to accomplish that in Blender.
One other thing to note: Maya and/or 3DS Max are the undisputed kings of 3D modeling and animation. If you are thinking about a career in 3D modeling/animation (which I STRONGLY discourage due to how much competition there is) I would recommend you spend the money for a Maya LT license so that you'll at least have some familiarity with the full version should you ever end up at a company where you have to do 3D modeling using Maya Ultimate or whatever they call it these days.
geoffrey
28,736 PointsOne other thing to note: Maya and/or 3DS Max are the undisputed kings of 3D modeling and animation. If you are thinking about a career in 3D modeling/animation (which I STRONGLY discourage due to how much competition there is)
Where are you located ? I think that's a good advice you give, I went to high school to become 3D game artist. But if you want to find a job in my country (Belgium), in this field, It's almost impossible, you can count all the companies on one hand and when you are lucky enough to work for one of them, you often don't have a long term contract.
I considered to move abroad, but some people told me that was pretty much the same story. I then 've switched to web development, and thanks to it I quickly found a job in a field I like as well, even If I liked very much 3D modeling and texturing (my specialities).
I don't have the time at the moment to work on some project by lack of time, but I miss it.
Finally you are right about the fact that if you want to be hired, you need to buy a licence for Maya or 3dsmax as they are industry strandards.
I personally switched to blender to work on some indie projects. This application is pretty awesome and I like it very much, for 0$...
Patrick Cooney
12,216 PointsI'm based in the United States. There isn't much here anymore because Canada and a few of the Asian countries are willing to give game companies and special effects studios big subsidies to move their workforces to those countries. It's not like there's none. Just not enough for the number of people that want to do it. Even in the countries where there are a lot of jobs open there are still far more applicants than openings.
Alejandro Chiari
1,981 PointsAlejandro Chiari
1,981 PointsI downloaded it but the software tells me I just have a 15 day trial
Ryan Creason
11,600 PointsRyan Creason
11,600 PointsHey Alejandro,
Make sure though that you follow the link from the perk page that I linked in the above comment. If you do that, then you'll be taken to a page with the title of, "Free software download for students & educators." Once you follow the link in the perk description, it'll ask you to sign in with your Autodesk account. If you don't have one, you can create one. Then it'll give you the option to select the software that you want. After that, they will have their license information and will give you your serial number and product key. You may be prompted to enter that in. Here is a link to help on how to enter your serial number and product key if you are prompted.