There is no 'workflow' in Maya, comparable to something like Max or SI. There is a really really tiny layer of scripted procedures over DAG, sometimes unbelievably limited and inconsistent, definitively not enough to provide the maneuverability for 3d generalist's work. Every now and then, someone has to dive into nodes, let's say even for plain adjusting of polygon primitive, once deformer is applied. Now, if only that node editor behaves like ICE tree or Houdini network, precisely focused on carrier object. Instead, once you're in Maya Node Editor, whole mind of Borg Queen is opened, asking for new work, just to (more or less manually) organize the data.nodeway wrote:For years I thought that there is something wrong with me, because I couldn't get Maya.luchifer wrote:But it is easy once you understand a workflow. It works with Zbrush, Cinema and all the programs we know.Understanding the Maya data flow, this is by all means harder than creating a few little scripts - so.... no way to work with this software, without a basic scripting knowledge, or, without TD in room.
But then I learned Houdini, Max, Modo, UE4, Unity, Fusion and couple others. In many I know how to script and their C++/C# API.
After that I stopped thinking that there is something wrong with me.
Maya is THE problem, not me.
To say again, it's not something I can't 'get', it's just that I don't know where to 'sell' this, today. Ten years ago, I'd like that complexity, hoping to get 'more'. But today, it's just unhappy ratio of two, three times more work, for possible few percents of 'more', or not even that.
Also, with global influence of things like Microsoft Kinect and game engines, it's questionable, is it possible for traditional rigging and animation to survive.
Anyway, Maya always been that complicated Borg Queen, basically OS for 3d. Don't know why someone is even thinking about Maya for single users (except some occasional half hobbyist). Sounds like some corporate idea, someone on corporate meeting just wanted to be innovative, or such.