Hey Everyone,
I was just trying to decide on the best modeling, graphics, etc tools to learn and wanted to know what is the most widely used/best in the industry? Doesn’t matter the platform, just the best to learn overall. I want to learn how to use tools/skills that can actually be applied in the gaming/entertainment industry.
BTW, it doesn’t have to be Unity compatible, but that would be nice.
The list I came up with of tools that I could find were:
Modeling/Animation/Texture Tools:
Mudbox3D (Mudbox)
Cinema3D, Bodypaint3D (Maxon)
ZBrush (Pixologic)
XSI (SoftImage)
Modo (Luxology)
BTW, I please move this if you think it fits better in ‘External Tools’, I just didn’t think it did.
AGhost
Those are some fine tools. Basically anything you learn won’t be a waste of time. As in, you’ll be ahead of the game transferring your knowledge from, say SoftImage to Maya than someone who has no experience in either program. So it’s all good.
With that said, the most popular industry-standard tools are:
Maya, 3D Studio Max and Photoshop.
Learn those three and you’ll be using what most of the companies out there are using.
Also, I really really really love the way Modo works on the Mac. Shame its so expensive. ZBrush is also a great program but rather confusing to me. Also neither of those have animation support so their not as handy as I would like.
How is Blender support for animations coming along. Blender + The Gimp makes for an extremely cheap development setup 
Repeated for emphasis. (and agreement)
Yeah, money aside, Maya and PhotoShop are the 2 tools that will get you the furthest making games with Unity or creating any 3D content on the Mac.
[Edit] If you have a dual platfrom layout, 3DS Max might be the best way to go… even as a rabid fan of Maya, I’ll concede the fact that 3DS Max is probably a better application for game content simply because so many other companies adhere to it… and for that matter check out ZBrush if you’re into character modeling and want to make some highly detailed models with normal maps.
cough Softimage XSI + ZBrush = good things.
Basically, use what you work best in. As long as it has the features you need, it is fine.
To add to the list of industry tools, Lightwave deserves a mention, and Truespace to an extent as well although I don’t know how common it is anymore.
The big players are 3DS Max, XSI, Maya, and of course ZBrush with any of the above.
-Jeremy