Review of Maya 2014 from a Student/Freelancer Perspective

Review Software-Maya 2014 Jan 2014

My choice Review

   This software review for the Maya 2014 Package is a very popular product for many thousands of not millions of people around the world.  The price is very steep for a professional, but the student version can be a lot better if you go to college.  The product workflow is a very good to have with creating the types of products a person needs to get the job done.  There is a learning curve to this software, but it is a well worth the time to take to learn it, so you can get the rewards from the software.


Performance

"Disclaimer I am using my own setting on my PC that i personally made and so the performance could be slower or faster depending on what type of computer you have"

        In the the ability of the performance aspect it was a very simple process in installing it on my PC and Mac.  There was not much lag in using the program, as well with any other software when you had millions of polygons inside it, IT WILL START TO SLOW DOWN.  It is a given because it depending on your Ram and Cpu it will affect the performance of it.  I will recommend some products for your computer to help it get faster at the end of this page!

The Tools inside


The tools inside Maya 2014 has vastly improved from the 2013 Version, there is a lot of different aspects that they created for the user to help speed up workflow.  There is In-View messaging that provides really good tips and nice feedback for a variety of tools and modes without messing up your workflow.  There is a nice feature that is called "ToolClips"  that provide learning content from within the Maya software to help learning content a lot easier and faster for the new user or advanced user trying to learning something.    There is a Modeling Toolkit that is for 3D modelers to help increase the speed and efficiency for your workflow.  It has all the tools that you would need to get from point A to point B.  With the selection tools and transformation tools, and mesh editing, vertex locking, and loop selection,etc.  Also if you have ever had the trouble if trying to reduce your polygon count because it is to big and also for your game platform your using for the game model.  There is a feature to reduce the mesh to smaller polygon count without reducing or changing the shape of the model.

 This is great because now you don't have to worry about it changing your model to something that you didn't intend it to be.  There is also a nice handy feature that you can now align the current camera to the selected polygon face using the new Align Polygon to Camera option which is (View > Align Polygon to Camera).  If you have been wanting that Render Feature in maya to be updated you will be happy to know it has.  With Viewport 2.0 now supports DirectX 11 rendering engine for the Windows 64-bit systems for your computer.  HLSL shaders are supported with DirectX 11 and with this new viewport update you can see what the character will look like in a game engine set-up without having to go into the program.  There is also a new UNIFIED Sampling Controls for Mental Ray Renderer, which will help with not having to go into every setting to make it look right.  There are many, and more wonderful tools that they have added into Maya 2014 i would suggest that you go to there website and go learn more about it and go to amazon.com to learn more about it with buying some books about Maya new interface and getting started to learn about it more.


Products to Help Increase your Speed on your Computer.

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Core-i5-3570K-Quad-Core-Processor/dp/B007SZ0E1K/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390801291&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=intel+i5+chicp

First Review Software-Cinema 4D R15 Studio

My Choice Review

This software review for the Cinema 4D Studio Edition the product price is very steep, although the product will pay off in the amount of work you can get done and the workflow speed.  The quality of the product is very clean and streamline for the consumer and it gives a new user a very easy way to learn the software in a quick amount of time.

Performance

“Disclaimer I am using my own setting on my PC that I personally made and so the performance could be slower or faster depending on what type of computer you have”

            In the performance aspect there was a very easy navigation inside the program once installing it on my PC.  There was no lag or very little or no sluggishness in using the program.  When making a huge scene however was when it started to slow down but if your using a few million polygons in a scene with hair or fur the software going to slow down your computer whatever software your using.

The Tools inside

The tools that Cinema 4D had were a lot of way to complete a task from adding a cube in the tool bar, to adding modifier on top of the cube without having to edit the cube itself.  There is a also lot of tools like right clicking on the object you can get a drop down menu on what to do to it, like say Bevel or Extrude from the object.  You have to click first to make it Editable so you can do that, but it’s a very non-destructive format with this software.  There are also short cut keys in the program where there is if you click on the object and press the T button on the keyboard it makes the object scale, and if you click E you can Rotate the object and if you hold the right button mouse click and scroll the mouse forward and back you can scale the object that way too.

If you’re a 3D Modeler or Animator

This product is a great product that has many ways of getting your workflow up and running as soon as you start a project.  Granted you have to learn the interface for a few days, but you will soon make it up by the amount of time you save with this piece of software.  If you want to animate with this product this gives you many tools to create your animations with, one of the Bright Spots in this is when you animate a object you get a graph that shows up in the interface of the workplace your working on and shows you like if you are moving a leg to walk.  This will show up and have the arc that it makes when the legs moves on your character.  This is very handy to have and I personally feel that it speeds up your animation workflow.

The texture and realism in this program is very great, I have created an object that I will place in this review in just about 20-30 minutes of time to make and render.

Interface of Cinema 4D R15 Studio

If you’re a Hobbyist

Strawberry made from 3D

This Product is a something that if you want to go into what the Professionals use that by all means go for using this type of software.  This type of product is expensive and If you don’t have the money for it right now then save up for it, but in the mean time I would at least get a demo version of this and see if you like it.  If you really love this product then go for it and buy it.    

Video of Review of Cinema 4D studio Cinema 4D Studio

Where to buy

There are few sites that you can buy this product at and I will recommend them in the links below on my sites so you can go look at the product and hopefully purchase.  Thanks again for reading this review and have a great day!

http://www.amazon.com/Maxon-Cinema-4D-Studio-R15/dp/B004M145AY/ref=sr_1_8?m=A2HX2MRG96ONB3&s=merchant-items&ie=UTF8&qid=1389748541&sr=1-8&keywords=cinema