From what I have read, the gmax solution requires alot of fiddling.

There are 3d max tutorials for bf2.
There are maya tutorials for bf2.

I have not yet tried the 3d max version of the bf2 editing and I probably will not.

As far as your abilities to produce quality content, maya is the winner. It's also a more valuable tool as far as the gaming and modeling/animation industry goes.

3d max is acceptable, but is not as good of a tool. It doesn't produce high enough quality material which is why it is rarely to never used in the entertainment industry. Maya is all over the tv and movies as is lightwave.

I am much better with lightwave than maya since that's where most of my training came from. I have been leaving the maya stuff regarding bf2 to my buddy who I work with. I've been watching him trying to get the mel scripts in maya to work and so far.. no go. It all has to do with the fact that DICE is working on an old version of maya.

i only started messing with mapping when gradiant came out, so I really dont know where to look for maya.....can you tell me where to dl it or purchase it????? thanks

start here.

holyshit 2000 dollars for commercial and 7 thousand for unlimited.....holy crap.....is the $150 version good enough???? dont think i want to map that bad

yeah. That's the problem with these programs, they are friggin expensive.

is the 150 dollar version of maya good???

I have to disagree with you there Foyleman. I've been using 3ds max for a few years now and it can do everything maya can do for games. I had to move from max to maya with my work (only because the boss worked for alias and gets it cheap) and their are things in there that are close to max. Maya is great for TV/film stuff but for games I don't see the big thing and many games companies will use both programmes. Maya is unstable, terribly querky and over priced. when it comes to characters XSI is much better and subdivision modelling is maya is a real drag and has never been good in maya, although they have made smooth proxy which is like a subdivision surface but I think it doesn't look so nice. Animation in maya is also pretty crap. The fact that one has to key frame the model's attribute changes instead of using keys on the timeline just to keep your computer from crashing is terrible.

UV mapping in maya is great though and theres lots of other great things that can be done in maya especially if you want to get into films

sorry...for just going off on one but I just saw your comment and thought...NOOO!!! LOL. Maya isn't the only program thats industry standard 3DSMax is to. Learn both programmes cause they both have good and bad things in them and you never know if you go for that interview and they ask...@do you use max?". Even though I spend my every day in maya I still prefere MAX. I would personnaly stay away from Lightwave it's a horrible dinosaur of a 3d application.

Marcus
www.blacktreeuk.net