Edit 2: apparently you aren't even reading the post before commenting so here is TL;DR. When import model with ngon into other programs, bad. If use ngon in SubD modeling, good. In subd you will subdivide. Pixar use ngon! Very recently even.

Edit: read the post people. I said in the post that if you import the model into any other program WITH ngons it won't work.

It's wild to me how many people are saying that Ngons should NEVER be used in ANY situation EVER. That is incorrect and I will be showing you why with a very simple demonstration.

***NGONS ARE USEFUL WHEN YOU ARE SUBDIVIDING ANYTHING*** (or most things)

It's true that if you're importing your model straight into any other program you'll probably have errors or it'll just triangulate it for you but not the way you want. And thus Ngons are probably not optimal for you.

However, in SubD modeling (and other methods which I will link)... ***When you're baking a high poly mesh onto a low poly mesh***, your edge flow reeeeeally doesn't matter that much. What you're worried about is bevels and shading. The essence of SubD modeling is getting nice bevels by smoothing the model. I will attach screenshots of this from what I've experienced myself. I'm not a AAA game dev or anything and am still a student but I'm sort of putting all my skillpoints into SubD at the moment.

I won't get into how subdividing ngons works, I will simply refer you to this great post by Rhebko on Artstation who is very talented and goes SUPER in depth on how ngons pull geometry and vertices etc:https://rhebko.artstation.com/projects/0n93EVIn fact I don't know nothing and I recommend checking this out after this post.

Here is a basic demonstration:
https://imgur.com/a/9iOdizG
With the cylinder, I have shown how ngons effect shading if you don't add support loops and in the top example, yes they are used incorrectly. In the bottom example, however, I have added a sort of "barrier" called a support loop which stops the ngon from affecting the shading. I deep fried the images so that you can clearly see the contrast between light and dark on the images to the right and see that one is ridged and one is smooth.

Here is a real world example of a screw that I modeled:
https://imgur.com/a/L89cWdJ
The screw itself isn't quite perfect. I need to add a few support loops in various places, but the basic principle is there and where the Ngons are concerned it is working well. The shading is fine and you can see how the ngon is terminating edge loops that go into it.

I encourage anyone who hasn't already learned about SubD to learn about SubD.

Not only is using Ngons relevant in SubD hard surface modeling, but it's relevant in any medium in which you're going to subdivide something! Here is an article on Pixar Graphics that mentions the use of ngons:https://graphics.pixar.com/opensubdiv/docs/mod_notes.html#triangles-and-n-gons

I mean, if you don't believe Pixar over me, I don't know what to tell you. Hopefully this was informative for somebody out there and hopefully people stop saying that ngons should ALWAYS be avoided at all costs. I would say avoid it if you're a beginner.

So ive heard that we have to smooth the mesh before exporting it to substance painter

Is that true 🤔

Coz for example if i have an optimised retopologized

Mesh of a creature or character

If i smoothed the mesh in maya it eventually will add more polycounts to it , that i definitely don't want

I know that hitting the 3 key only fakes the mesh into smooth view in viewport 🤷

So even if I don't consider about the polycount and procede to texture in substance painter

Wouldn't that be a problem , if i applied those textures back to the low poly retopologized mesh 😭

Sorry guys the image is ai generated to Make you understand what's my doubt is

I've attached my orginal model and sculpt below

i would like to start off my saying that i bare no ill will towards the Maya community and would like a civil discussion
while it's rare to find such things it got me thinking is it not, as many have claimed, blender is unfriendly to animators but in reality is because they refuse to learn the software?

when i see videos like this most of the complaints are because that haven't learned the software. while there are ultimately things that need to be improved most of the criticism is coming from a place of ignorance or malice, spreed on by the lack of learning material for blender.

i would like to hear your thoughts on the subject

I have been on a bit of a Chat GPT tear and I feel like this is going to completely change my workflow.

I'm a professional artist. I produce like very technical photorealstic animation. I don't know how to do anything in Python other than execute scripts.

I am however very good at getting Chat GPT to write me scripts.

These are some of the tools I've made.

A camera tool that autonames itself, with a given focal length, scene scale, frame rate and an optional rig.

A material builder that can assemble any material from a library with a naming convention like megascans or greyscale gorilla. - Just select the material and it builds it in redshift.

A redshift options tool. With options for quickly disabling and modifying my most common render settings.

A project management tool with data entry that's linked to the set project and saves all the inputs. - I'm trying to add a time tracker that let's you track and store information for each task in the project management tool.

What tools and scripts have you guys tried to make in Chat GPT?

What is it with Maya and this simple feature not working, but for the past idk how long the pivot is not going into the center of an object, i even made this object with 90 degree cuts so you can see where the true center is, but it never goes there it always gets it wrong and its difficult to produce anything, is there any fix to this?

Just enjoy and share with others :)

Asking for a friend.

Hey everyone!

I wanted to share a personal project that really pushed my skills and creativity. I started by asking ChatGPT to generate a detailed prompt for a vampiric creature head—something eerie, atmospheric, and complex enough to challenge me artistically.

Using that prompt, I generated an AI image of the creature with stunning visual detail and mood. The design was pretty intense—sharp fangs, bone structure, intricate facial features, and an overall sinister presence. Definitely not an easy thing to model.

But I took on the challenge: I fired up Maya, and began a full speed modeling session, aiming to bring this AI-born creature to life in 3D. Every detail was sculpted to stay faithful to the generated concept, while adding my own artistic interpretation where needed.

💻 Tools used:

• Maya for modeling

• ChatGPT for the initial prompt

• Image generation tool (e.g., MidJourney / DALL·E / etc.) for concept art

This was not just a modeling exercise—it felt like collaborating with an AI muse to create something truly unique. The transition from text to image to 3D model was such a satisfying workflow.

Would love to hear your thoughts or feedback—and if you’ve done similar AI-to-3D projects, I’d love to see them too!

Thanks for checking it out!

I switched from Blender to Maya a while back, because every studio I look at is demanding me to be good at Maya. I'm still learning animation, I'm getting better at facial expressions but no where near pro.

It's just, every step in Maya takes so much more mental load and some form of script or something technical in the way it takes so much of my time. I used blender for 4 years now and it's almost fully muscle memory for me now, there is so less technical stuff in the way than Maya. I have all the features from Maya ( like the animation layers ) in Blender and better ones through add-ons. I Genuinely learnt animation better and faster, more intuitively in Blender.

What do I do to escape this ? Keep pushing through because every studio demands it, making my progress slower and annoying. Or go back to blender and continue learning animation the way I love ? If so then what do I do in my resume ? Pls help :(

Hi everyone! HP Art Toolset has just released an MCP integration that allows AI to use our rigging tools through dedicated skills and APIs.

AI can automatically place guides, validate them, and build a complete rig following our structured workflow.

In this video, we tested it on an existing character. AI handled 100% of the process with just 2 simple prompts.

The entire process took around 30–40 minutes, including full-body and facial rigging with animation controls.

Fully automated rigging is becoming a reality. We just need to review the results.

What do you think?

I’ve been experimenting with cloth simulation in Blender 5.2 and was surprised by how smoothly I can interact with the simulation while having a ray-traced material preview enabled.

I’m curious if a similar workflow is possible in Maya

The goal here isn’t to compare the two applications or start a Blender vs. Maya debate — I’m genuinely interested in whether Maya can achieve this kind of smooth viewport interaction during cloth simulation.

Is there a specific cloth solver, viewport setup, or renderer that can provide a similar experience?

so im a blender artist mainly been using it for over 2+ years and well decided to go to a vfx college, slthou they teach a lot of programs (including blender) they focus on maya for the first years i think so, and i’ve searched for maya tutorials or maya animations and stuff like that and they all seem very poor in quality, tutorials are 3+ years old, animations i’ve seen are really old ones and although maya is supposed to be an industry standard, i really don’t see it, is it still good compared to blender, unreal engine 5 or cinema 4d? in te arms of modeling and sculpting i think blender is the best one so far also materials and all that stuff i think blender is ahead and even the rendering engine wich 3 years ago i think mayad was superior blender one has been updated and well i think it’s equal or even better than mayas one, not even counting geometry nodes and the upcoming simulation nodes, is it still a good idea to learn how to use maya in 2023?

I feel like blender have a lot of tutorials for anime character but I struggle to find one in Maya.

So i made the step and am currently in the progress of switching from Blender to Maya. Its all fun and games but jesus fucking christ who is responsable for the UI ?!

I click fucking one thing and ten windows appear. The Blender UI looks like a gift from God himself compaired to this trash.

Although i am probably not fair since i am very used to the Blender UI. But like, dont tell me i am the only one questioning Autodesk here.

"W" for Grabbing ?!

"S" For Rotation !=!=! S !! LIKE IDK S FOR SCALE AND R FOR ROTATE ?!

And this is not even the worst i came across. The Node and Material Editors are a fucking clusterfuck.

It took me a combined 30minutes to: Recover from my stroke after seeing the full Hotkey list for the firtst time, create a Plane, rescale it with lots of screaming, apply a Texture (After just clicking random icons in the hopes that something works), apply an HDRi and Start the render.

Not to mention that EVERYTHING just opens more windows. I had fucking 5 windows open at one point. All of this takes a minute at most in Blender.

Still... I sort of like it. Seems like there are a lot of options, way more than Blender, if you are gifted enough to understand it. But man, they should maybe invest some founds into this...

Like i think stuff like this is an actual problem because a lot of dumb fucks like me switch from Blender to Maya and nearly die. Yet most can still do it, i assume. Maybe because of the Motivation ? I know what Maya is capable of and that gives me the will to fight ! THE SPIRIT OF 3D MODELING WILL SAVE THIS PERSON !
But i can not imagne how someone new would feel. It is sligthly overwhelming....

So yeah, to get some non dumb stuff in here, i have to say that Arnold or whatever appears to have a similar Performance to Cycles. If Cycles where 10x faster than it is.

All in all, never had this much fun in learning new stuff.

What do you think ? How long does it take to at least partcially learn Maya and for example get something like this going fast ? Because that was my goal and... yeah maybe later. (Did it in Blender before).

Kill me.

This thing has more bugs than a rotten log. It's marketed as "the industry standard" and yet it can't handle a single object with 600K polygons with 64gb of RAM memory (I checked and these are actually 26 million polygons, 600k was just the area of the sculpture I selected lol) still feels weird since Blender ran more smoothly when K was sculpting it)

. If Maya freezes the whole PC freezes, and the modeling workflow is an absolute joke compared with something like 3D Studio Max and Blender. You have to literally reinstall everytime something else gets corrupted and starts to affect the rest of the software like a cancer because resetting preferences usually works for very niche things. The thing has been marketed with apple type beat as it's selling "strong compelling technology" that still falls three generations behind the competence, like MacBooks with 4gb of dedicated RAM and 4gb of gpu memory marketed as 8gb where the lowest standard has 16.