I am a beginner in creating 3D assets, and I wondered which program is better to start with, Blender or Maya. I have heard good things about both, but I don't know which one would be easier to use. Does anyone have suggestions?

See this other thread: https://gamedev.net/forums/topic/711735-blender-vs-3ds-max-vs-maya-vs-zbrush/​

Maya is complex and it also has a lot of non-crashing bugs. If something doesn't work right, you won't know if it's you or the software. It is very frustrating software. I've had nightmares because of it.

But Maya is also the best software I've ever used. It is complex and it has great architecture. Yes, being complex is both good and bad.

It's like a curse. The software that is the best is also the worst. You will be telling yourself how perfect life would be if Maya just didn't have all those damn little bugs. You will be wanting for a better Maya. Maybe you can get a bug fixed that you discovered (the same bug many have found before), but it is a minefield of confusing little bugs.

Blender is free software that has a helpful community. I've never cared for it but it seems to have gotten better the last 2 years.

3DS Max is another option. It is widely used for asset modeling and animation. It's not free but I think it is priced about the same as Maya, not sure.

If yoy think Maya is frustrating, then wait to see the nightmare blender is

doesn't matter. you only need to learn the basics of 3d and that will occupy you for at least a couple years.

once you understand 3d the difference in software is only a matter of preference in ergonomics.

if you are keen on animation maya has best toolset for that. If you are aiming for a job at a studio probably just go with what their job application ask for. If you are money strapped the obvious choice is blender.

AF1Beast said:
I am a beginner in creating 3D assets, and I wondered which program is better to start with, Blender or Maya.

It depends entirely on you. If you can, try all DCC tools, try to model something, see which feels intuitive for you.
Some tools can do a certain job 10 times better than the other, but it depends on your personal preferences and habits.

This was my experience (dates back 10 years):
3DsMax: Great to model technical stuff or Logos, bad to model organic stuff like characters. Complex UI, fast at rendering simple animations not requiring fancy raytracing. Good tool for every job.
Modo: Great to model organic / characters. Intuitive UI, feels simple in a good way.
Softimage XSI: Great to animate characters and develop something like IK rigs. Very logical UI, but complex.

Blender: Non-intuitive UI, barely usable to me. I hate it and always think ‘this would be so easy to fix’.
Maya: Seems pretty good. I liked it, but have tried it only shortly.

Another person would tell you a completely different story.

Afaik Maya and Blender are now dominating the games industry, so limiting to those two options might have it's reason.
Blender costs just a lot less. : )

fleabay said:
Maya is complex and it also has a lot of non-crashing bugs.

All of them are somewhat buggy i would say.

Did nobody notice that the question was asked 4 months ago?

Tom Sloper said:
Did nobody notice that the question was asked 4 months ago?

Ooops, actually i did look at the date!

…but then i realized i do not even know which year we have.

Regarding the complexity of Blender's UI (and a point that I don't think was addressed in the thread to which Tom Sloper linked), I gather that Blender significantly overhauled its interface in recent versions, and further, that it's now somewhat more beginner-friendly.

That said, do take this with some salt: I haven't actually used the new version myself, I believe, and thus am only passing on what I recall hearing. (I'm sticking with an older version of Blender for now, as I'm used to it and it fits into my current workflow.)

Thus, I would suggest not taking the criticism of Blender's UI quite to heart, and giving the current version a try to see how you feel about it.

JoeJ said:
…but then i realized i do not even know which year we have.

We live in “this year”. ;P

@Tom Sloper oops sorry. i just saw at top of a list and assumed was recent.