Which 3D tools is recommend with Unity3D? Maya or Cinema 4D?? thanks.
Whichever you want to use, so long as it can export to a usable format such as FBX. That’s pretty much all of them on the market, including free software such as Blender
Out of those two, I would suggest Maya simply because Cinema 4d doesn’t look like it has much of a focus on polygonal modeling. I find Maya to be a real dinosaur, personally, so just try out some trials of each and decide for yourself. They’re not cheap, so don’t let anybody else decide for you. My preference is Modo for polygon and subd modeling, Zbrush for sculpting, and Softimage/XSI for animation. Each of those was designed specifically for those tasks.
Thanks very much!
We will consider to buy Maya with Unity3D. I have tried Blender but the UI is not easy to control and not much support…
Thanks again.
Regards,
Simon
And about FBX this is developed by Autodesk, then you will have melscript commands to control or setup the FBX plugins without opening the FBX window.
You can try Maya for free, I’d recommend trying it for the 30 day trial period and see how you get on. I didn’t like Maya when I was looking for a modeler on the mac and went back to windows and 3ds max. The benefit of a big package is that they do absolutely everything. Picking the right one for you comes down to personaly preference. Different artists are more comfortable with different tools and UI’s and can be more productive in one over another even though both programs do essentially the same thing. Just like Acrylics v’s Oil paints in traditional art.
Try Lightwave !!
I think if you start 3d, 3dsmax could be easier yes…
Maya is maybe a little bit more technical, I agree.
Lightwave support seems sketchy at best, I would recommend sticking with whatever has robust FBX support.
Modo
IF you start go for Cinema 4D. Getting into Max or Maya … both are difficult to get into. Yes - Maya even more so. Yet of all the professional programs I’ve used Cinema4D was the easiest to comprehend.
I don’t know whether the animations in the most recent version (still usin R11) import into unity. But other than that - for everything else it works very well.
Agreed 100%. I started using Blender few years ago and then switched (not completely I still use both) to C4D. The best choice of my 3D life 
The good thing is - after having understood Cinema4D you can even apply all thos techniques to any other major package. Some terms are called differently but you’ll understand what everything basically means and does.
And with Cinema 4D you can really get pretty far. So don’t think it’s just a stepstone to a “professional” package. Cinema is professional. It’s just got it’s advanteages and disadvantages like any software out there. The perfect software for most people simply does not exist.
3dmax the easiest, but least reliable, if not sorry for the time and nerves - something with him on it most of the initial lessons learned and all supports
Lightvawe3d a long time to learn hotkeys, and user interface is not complicated with complex animation
Softimage\XSI - super, but too weird crashes (often simply by opening the menu, right-click or use the facets, and other small…) a lot of hidden bugs and flaws, has not yet learned to properly display and render Normal maps, and rendering - the most difficult on the interface only supports square textures, a few good lessons
Cinema4d super package, but it still must grow, the complexity of bones - they are there just not all the animation is done on a different principle, a completely different principle of modeling, super powerful rendering (I renders 1-1.5 meters in 300 dpi with GI FG AA2x on a computer for 3 h) a lot of lessons the average level
Blender - like began to flourish, there are many lessons
Maya - a copy of xsi just a little bit different, something better something worse, but learned more particularly in the middle and professional levels, including the complex effects and animation
I’m used now - Maya PhotoshopCs3+NMnvidia filters ngo + UVLayout, its all. older C4d
Sorry my English, thanks google translate 8)
Being a longtime C4D user (14 years) I suggest to go with Maya at this point. Maxon doesn’t seem to understand the importance of FBX or proper Modeling/UV Tools. To a game artist/animator these are very essential components that Maxon has neglected over the years. They obviously don’t think it’s important enough to keep these essential things updated and their development team is still too small to keep up with the demands of the user base.
Go with something that is reliable. Cinema 4D is not one of them. You never know in which direction Maxon is taking it.
Thomas P.
Thanks Thomas for your valuable suggestion…
Seriously - try it out for yourself. Download the demos and try it out for yourself.
That’s the best thing you can do.
People can always try and tell you what they think is best and works best for them right now.
I’ve been using Cinema 4D for 6 years now and have gone through hating, loving, hating and loving it again.
I’ve tried to wrap my head around using blender for years and in the end it became my favorite modeler. Now they’ve changed the UI and I don’t have the time to get to the speed I was used to.
I’ve tried to learn Maya … more than once. To this day I never really did because you need time. You need really good teaching material and time because Maya has grown insanely complex. It will pretty sure still be one of the two leading software packs for games and movies for at least a few more years to come (right now there does not seem to be one really potential rival ahead). Max is the other. With those two you’ll probably get the best compatibility.
Max is a little easier to get into. Still: both are software I’d suggest using if you have someone to tell you what to do if you’re stuck or whom you can watch creating things and doing his tricks.
Cinema 4D still is the easiest. I can confirm Thomas’ statement that Maxon often are a little “jumpy”. They’ve now changed the whole system “under the hood”. Cinema’s modeling tools are on the slower side for me. You can definately get them to work and do what you want but there are others that showed that a more streamlined effort for the modeler can get you up and running waaay faster. It’s all a matter of preference, though - and how much you are willing to learn shortcuts and how much youmlike the philosophy.
I’ve written lots of posts preaching how Cinema simply has a different approach that you either like or hate: mostly everything is created to be pretty visual so that you ‘know’ what you connect with another thing. It’s a little difficult to explain. It’s simply a lot of drag and drop. But you get used to it. On the other hand that makes it a little unflexible at times. Some ‘deeper’ tech isn’t as accessible if it didn’t fit in the “drag and drop” scheme. But mostly everything is there.
There might be problems with animation still - I don’t know unfortunately. Some say they have problems with the animation system and getting that to export. I’m stuck on R11, for the time being. So I can’t comment on anything more.
Yet all I’m trying to say is: look for yourself. You can get loads of positive or negative responses on forums. But search through other forums and you’ll always read the same thing: Everybody will tell you that the program he/she is usin is the best because it fits into HIS/HER workflow.
Try it out.
Dear MotionBlur,
Agreed! So I have downloaded Maya for try it out… The UI of Maya seems easy to control and understand. I think one of the reason to learn Maya because I can found more course and book to learning this tools in our city…
Thanks!
Btw, it seems that the latest update to the C4D R12 has finally fixed the fbx export problems but I haven’t been able to confirm that.
Check out this thread.
and it does seem to show on this updates list @ Maxon.
(I’m currently using C4D R11.5 and am having problems importing with textures into Unity - though I am a new-B)
Importing textures never was a problem with Cinema.
The main problems were 2 UVSets for external lightmapping and Joint/Animation export.
R11.5 fixed a lot of these problems apparently but I can’t comment on it any more since I’m still on R11 unfortunately.
C4D is now solid. Complex objects such as a multi part skinned set of eight tentacles with 17k polys each with head, jaws texture maps and 8 x 17 joints took about ten seconds to process and come into Unity. C4D 12.028. Someone said poly tools are not up to snuff. I disagree. There has never been anything I could not build and I can rapidly prototype in it. The community is much like Unity in that there are many showing off their chops and giving away awesome plugins that they would charge out the wazoo for in Max or Maya. The animation rigging for characters may actually be more advanced than Maya with less…much less scripting involved. Some of Maxons beta testers are now into Unity and have been kicking HQ to fix things…hence 12.028 and its correct FBX export.
HTH
BTH