Hy. I'm a c++ programmer , and i would to create little game with my girl , that is a graphic. I'm programming with directx but i'm also far from a real game programmer. But the question is this : What is for you the best graphics program for the 3d? i see and evaluate blender , 3ds and maya. Blender is open source , but must be programmed in python or from c++ source . also Maya and 3ds max have a very complete sdk for c++. I'm very interessing in the animation programming(skeleton animation and so one)and i would choose with your advice a solution that make me more skilled in graphics programming and that can produce some little game for children . 1)blender is completely open source , and there is realy need of 3ds or maya for professional results? 2)The fact is that the sdk of maya and 3ds are realy big and well organized .blender is more confusing and is more low level = more complexity. 3) in 3d animation blender is worse that 3ds oer maya 4) 3ds vs maya:i'm not able to create a comparison. Thanks. by.

3ds Max, Maya, and Blender all have incredible feature sets. The ability to generate great assets with them has entirely to do with the familiarity and talent of the artists working with them. Each has very similar feature sets, but have pretty different workflows. It is a preference thing.

What I'm confused about it is you talking about programming with them. You use them to make art assets (models, animation, lightmaps, etc). You then import those assets into your game engine. Blender is an exception though, because it actually has a built in game engine.

Why are you talking about their SDKs? Are you wanting to write tools for them?