Sketchup is better than Maya

Jakeypoos · 14 Nov 2014, 23:26

Sketchup is absolutely the best interface at 3D modelling and has the potential with it's mix of 2d and 3d elements and plugins to be the best multi purpose 3D software there is, It's the only software where you can easily make a real, accurate place rather than a fantasy backdrop.

If I owned Sketchup you would be able to

Import models in most formats and have them appear with textures.
Load animated models as components and have them play separately or react to each other with physics
Import movies and apply them to surfaces for face me trees that russle in the wind, for backdrops, TV screens or anywhere you use a 2d still image today.

I would love to make movies and Sketchup has the best 3D interface in the world. (I've just spent a week wrestling with Blenders modelling hell ) Lets get some posable characters, animation, lets be able to import Makehuman characters and animate then and export them, to Marvellous studio or have those facilities as plugins/

Please please the workflow in sketchup is so fast, it has so much potential please please exploit it.

jeff hammond · 3 Dec 2014, 15:31

@jakeypoos said:

make a real, accurate place rather than a fantasy backdrop.

i thought you could model to scale in maya?
(but then again, i've never used it)

oceanembers · 3 Dec 2014, 16:13

It's not better. It's different. The sketchup workflow is very good for precise non-organic modeling. You wanna make a house? Sketchup's your friend. Cars? Ehhh not so much, I'd prefer maya for a car. People? Good luck coming up with a fast way to model good people in SU.
Edit: modeling aside, SU just isn't practical for many of the applications for which maya/max/blender are, and vice versa.

oceanembers · 12 Dec 2014, 12:28

@jeff hammond said:

@jakeypoos said:

make a real, accurate place rather than a fantasy backdrop.

i thought you could model to scale in maya?
(but then again, i've never used it)

Sort of. Not well. It's not a software made for construction documents and plans like SU and CAD are. It is very good at making things that look good, thus its use in the animation/vfx industry (where precision in dimensioning is pretty much irrelevant), but accuracy is not its forté.

Think of it like a graphite stick, and SU as a mechanical pencil. I suppose that would make zbrush and mudbox paintbrushes? Sure, that analogy works.

Kaja9 · 14 Jan 2015, 15:34

Better?

in user interface and the way you work - absolutely !
in joy and happiness when you create in Sketchup - definitly

because Maya is heavy, and we must say powerful, that's true, but you cannot enjoy the work as with the SKetchup. Its boring, difficult, and enjoyless. Maya is software from the old school. It is heavy and difficult in vain.

Sketchup is new, light, easy to learn and happy to make. Looks awesome and is for everybody.

Thaťs the point which I totaly prefer, so my final conclussion is: Yes Sketchup is better !

Pixero · 14 Jan 2015, 20:38

That is IMHO a ridiculous statement.
Better at... what?
It' like saying a car is better than an airplane.

Maya is node based and built around animation. You can connect almost anything to anything to for example drive an animation with the color of a texture.
Animation is SketchUp is rudimentary at best.

Don't get me wrong I love SketchUp and believe it's one of the best tools for hard surface modelling.
But please don't compare it with Maya. Totally different usage that would be impossible to do in SketchUp.

roland joseph · 14 Jan 2015, 20:54

@unknownuser said:

absolutely the best interface at 3D modelling

He said it was the best interface!
Not the best modeller.
and in the context of "fun" which is the important criteria here
if you deny that statement you must never have any fun at all.

panixia · 14 Jan 2015, 22:48

basically you are tryng to compare a the industry standard of vfx and animation supermodeler with the industry standard architectural 3d-sketcher/conceptual sketcher.. totally pointless.. they are intended to do very different jobs.. and obviously the interface of sketcup is simpler because sketchup is simpler. overall maya is a much more complex piece of software in therms of functionality and power.. try to open an hi-poly maya model in sketchup..
i don't know maya, but i know max quite a lot and often i model in sketchup for the 3dsmaxguys to render and this is a very good workflow (if you model with some decent general modeling rules)..

use sketchup for qickly and accurately create architecture and maybe landskape with geolocation and maybe hardsurface objects and assemble it in max or maya or blender or whatever supermodeler you like were you can scatter forests, add dynamics, atmospherics, unwrap uv, animate hierarchies and meshes, rig and so on..
this way you get the best of the two worlds..

again, i don't know maya, but i can grant for the sketchup to max workfloow.. once you catch it, is really fast and reliable with recent version of 3dsmax importing .skp i suppose maya can do it similar, but not sure.. importing 3ds hi-poly models in sketchup seems not a good idea.. maybe with SU2015 x64 i don'know.. but i'm still on sketchup 8 and i would'nt suggest it..

roland joseph · 14 Jan 2015, 23:17

in user interface and the way you work - absolutely !
in joy and happiness when you create in Sketchup - definitly

No doubt you are correct but everyone thinks you are bashing the other products. Everyone takes things so deeply and literally here and that it is really spoiling the fun.
I get you completely. Maja and many other industry standard software labels have remarkable powerful capabilities but their front ends are obsolete. You would like to have all that power with less learning curve.....simple...and a reasonable observation.

Pixero · 15 Jan 2015, 09:56

@roland joseph said:

@unknownuser said:

absolutely the best interface at 3D modelling

He said it was the best interface!
Not the best modeller.
and in the context of "fun" which is the important criteria here
if you deny that statement you must never have any fun at all.

I get it, but I have also worked with Maya for several years and I have had enjoyed it most of the time. It has a great interface for what it does. So has SketchUp.

HornOxx · 5 Apr 2015, 13:13

"...wrestling with Blenders modelling hell ..."

that´s great I agree!

axton213 · 14 Jul 2015, 08:57

Google Sketchup isn't bad. It's just not as integrated as it could be. The only time that I used it was when I needed to make custom object for use with Unreal engine. Let's just say I was frustrating. The scale was always off and the properties of the object had to be re-entered in UDK. Was way way easier to use a decent 3D modelling program although you are totally right about how easy it is to use Sketchup.

oceanembers · 17 Jul 2015, 08:40

@axton213 said:

decent 3D modelling

That be fightin' talk

In all seriousness though, yeah using sketchup for game-ready modeling is not an efficient use of available tools, to say the least. This thread kinda devolved into what was more fun to use, though, which is ridiculously subjective and not even worth talking about in a forum full of sketchup users.