by YokaI on Wed Sep 15, 2010 12:58 pm
Ｌｅａｒｎ ｔｈｅｍ ａｌｌ．
3ds Max has more documentation, XSI has (imo) better animation tools, and maya is... well, maya. 3ds Max has flaws, specifically with viewport / normal map rendering (it's very picky to get a normal map looking right in 3ds), but one of the things it has going for it is an extremely good library of resources and tutorials, specifically the ones that Racer445 makes or any of the various 3ds max tutorials at cg.tutsplus.com.
In the end of the day, a company would like to know you have good to advance knowledge of all the tools that you will be using on a regular basis, this includes knowing all 3 programs. Specifically, if you are working with a studio like capcom and square enix, I know personally that they use XSI for a lot of their content creation. Again, what they want to see will depend on the company. I think blizzard wants you to have a lot of knowledge on maya.
You'll be better off learning all the tools so that you understand the differences between the tools rather than basing your knowledge off a popularity poll. I've heard people say on this forum sometimes that XSI is a shit tool but I don't think they know fully the power that the tool has over 3ds max and some of the power it /doesn't/ have over the various tools.
I would thus also recommend using a tool that helps you quickly import your models into an engine, because otherwise all of the work on a shitty model will just not seem worth it in the end. (That's what happened to me a long time ago with the source engine)
I can't say for Maya, because I personally dislike the tool and haven't really dabbled enough into creating content with it, but I would say that XSI and 3ds Max are both very strong tools and I would honestly consider trying to get both of the tools and use them on conjunction if need be.
For game assets, I agree with mark, you don't need super advanced tutorials. In the end, you'll probably just confuse yourself along the way and try to do things that just >aren't< game development centric. You're better off learning the basics and perfecting them, like how to properly UV map and bake a AO / Normal Map.
Every time I've made a model so far, I've learned something new from experience alone. Because of this, I wouldn't choose a tool by how popular it is, because in the end of the day experience will trump any amount of tutorials. This is why these tools have a huge learning curve, because it will take a few really shitty models for you to start actually learning the process of model creation and understanding the work pipeline.
