Animating...

I have been animating again lately. Its a lot of fun getting back in it but very time consuming. I understand now why awesome animators like Juan Carlos worked 60 hours a week at Blue Sky because you need to!!! Software wise, there are a few things that I prefer Maya over it. I like the Graph Editor(Maya) over the Curve Editor(Max) . I feel Maya is so much more easier to tweak the graph and tangents in my animation. Max has the same tools but requires a bit more patience and effort. Playblast in Maya is a lifesaver! I haven't find similar way to preview my animation in Max yet. FYI I am still new at both programs so it could be just my bias over 3DS Max. I feel that program needs to be rewritten from zero since all you see in it is buttons and more buttons. It is the ugliest 3D app out there, imo.

One important thing I think, that 3DS Max or Maya or Lightwave, they are just a tool. All I want is to create beautiful animation with whatever medium available to me. Its the end result that people see and matters, not my softwares. I realized all the fundamentals that I learned from college from Mike Genz has been a tremendous help in my career so far. I have applied them to all my work from concept art, graphic design to animation.