An Examination of Autodesk Maya

Today I would like to take a look at Autodesk Maya 2017. I have previously dabbled a bit in Blender, but I am told that Maya's interface is a lot easier to get the hang of.


Right off the bat, the interface of Maya seems a lot less intimidating than Blender's, as well as much more pleasing aesthetically. Mind you, I last used Blender in the summer of 2016, so the interface has likely changed since then!

Unlike in Blender, Maya's scene seems to start out with... nothing. There's no primitives in the scene, only a grid and (presumably) some cameras. However, adding a primitive in is no difficult feat at all, as there's a handy menu up top that has a couple to choose from. Blender has a similar menu, though it's on the side and not initially open (and not as nice looking).

One thing that seemed to be missing though was a scene hierachy, found in the top-right corner of Blender's window. It took me a bit of fiddling around to find it. Pressing the bottom left button (above Maya's "M") produces the Outliner, which is what the scene hierarchy seems to be called here. Works the same way as always, though!

Overall, I think using Maya will prove to be a smoother experience than using Blender. I can't wait to get started!

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