5 hours ago, Tiny Giraffe said:

Oh, well fair enough when I do switch which would you recommend I use?

I think Maya is the best bet in general. I'm pretty sure it's the most popular package for this kind of thing, and it seems to have the best support by major game engines (Unreal, Unity) as well. That said, your best bet is to look at teams/companies that you're specifically interested in, and see what they use.

I also don't think learning a new package is quite as critical as some people would want you to believe.

7 hours ago, Scouting Ninja said:

Blender is not recognized by many of the large companies, it's reputation is improving but it is going to take some time. So you will need to get experience with Maya or Max before applying to a large company. 3Ds Max has a student license.

I started at my current job (which is in fact at a very large company) with essentially negligible Maya experience (I didn't have a personal copy of it and still don't) but many years of experience with Blender, and I picked up Maya without much conscious effort just by being around people who are comfortable with it, and now I use it every day.

I'm more of a technical artist, so I'm more comfortable with the API/design of Maya than I am with the actual hotkeys, etc. needed to model efficiently, but I can model in it without completely embarrassing myself. For more advanced modeling/texturing I usually jump back into Blender. I don't think anyone really cares what package you use as long as a) you actually get your work done, b) your work is good, and c) you're willing to take on the responsibility of making sure your stuff plays nicely with whatever the rest of your team uses.

That said, learning another package can only increase your usefulness. On the other hand, if you need to choose between either learning how to use Maya or having a good portfolio (even if it's Blender-only), focus on your portfolio first.

12 hours ago, Tiny Giraffe said:

Oh, well fair enough when I do switch which would you recommend I use?

Max is used mostly by game development companies so I recommend it. Once you go for your degree you can get it for free under the student license; your just not allowed to use it commercially under that license.

I use 3Ds Max at work but Blender at home. There is many of us who is doing our best to fill in the last missing tools Blender needs. Have you seen Text tools for Blender? http://polycount.com/discussion/197226/textools-for-blender By renderhjs.

There is lots of tools like that for Blender on Polycount.

13 hours ago, Tiny Giraffe said:

hat seems, well stupid, you can model anything in blender, what does 3d max or maya have that blender doesn't?

Max has some very fancy Auto mesh tools. Repair your topology with a click of a button kind of tools. It renders great with little effort and is the best for 3D modeling.

It is however not worth the price, it's too expensive. You can get 80% of the tools for free with Blender and Blender is proven to be much faster for modeling; Max is just easier because it has good Auto tools.

Maya has some great animation tools. Max and Maya is often fighting over the top spot for animation software. Maya is leading for over a year now. Blender is better for modeling for games than Maya.

Sadly Blender's animation tools are very low quality compared to Max or Maya.

My advice is stick with Blender. Then once you get your student ID go get Max if you want to be a 3D modeler or Maya of you want to be a animator. That way you don't have to pay for them and you can still use blender if you want to sell your models.

Blender is improving by the day, sooner or later it will be recognized by everyone. It has advanced a lot this past 10 years.

On 2/9/2018 at 3:10 PM, jbadams said:

Suggested reading: A frank look at making games professionally.

I finally got away for my school work to read it and I have to say I'm even more excited.

As you should be! It's a great field if you can get into it.