Blender vs Maya! Comparison of 2 Softwares By Game Character Modeler

Currently, I use Maya for corporate game projects and Blender for personal 3D modeling.

This time, I wrote an article that I am sure could be written only because of me.

The title is…

Blender vs Maya! Comparison of 2 Softwares By Game Character Modeler

 

Before reading the article, please note the following points.

 

Because I primarily produce game character models for real-time rendering, there is a bias in the Blender and Maya items compared in the article.

Please note that this is a comparative study of Blender and Maya from my viewpoint.

So here we go!

 

 

Compare Basic Functions

– How to operate

First, let’s talk about the basic operation.

Blender has long been said to have a unique operating method, but recently industry-compatible keymaps have been implemented, and more and more parts of Blender can be used with the same operating feel as other 3DCG software such as Maya.

 

 

3D Viewport Operations

Blender

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Maya

 

Move, rotate, and scale objects

Blender

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Maya

 

Mouse click selection

Blender

Basically left click

In the case of the standard Blender keymap, you can also change to right-click the selection, just like in the old Blender.

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Maya

Left click

 

 

– Favorite tools and custom shelving

Blender

A similar feature to Maya’s Custom Shelf is Blender’s Favorite Tool.

You can register almost anything you see in Blender’s UI by right-clicking on it. But if you register too many tools, it may be difficult to find them among your favorite tools.

 

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Maya

A feature similar to Blender’s Favorite Tool is Maya’s Custom Shelf.

Custom shelves allow you to freely register frequently used functions and scripts.

 

Shelf registration from the menu is done by Ctrl+Shift+Left Click, and shelf registration from the script is done by drag & drop. Labels and icons can be assigned to registered shelves.

When I first learned about Maya at the company, a senior colleague told me, “Working with Maya is all about how well you use shelves.

That is why Toha uses shelves more often than pie menus in Maya.

 

– Importing data files

Import with copy & paste

Blender

You can copy an object in a Blender scene with Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+V in another Blender scene, and paste the copied object into another scene.

 

Currently, the copied and pasted object is imported in the appended state.

 

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Maya

In Maya, you can also copy an object with Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+V in another Maya scene to paste the object into another scene.

 

However, in Maya, the name of the copied and pasted object is prefixed with “__pasted”.

After copying and pasting, you may want to manually rename the object or use Mel or Python, which removes the “__pasted” prefix.

You can make your own or find one on the Internet.

 

Drag & drop import

Blender

When you drag and drop another Blender file into Blender’s 3D viewport, a pop-up opens to allow you to choose from the following three operations

This is quite convenient~!

On the flip side, importing FBX files is not possible via drag and drop.

You can do this with add-ons, etc., but I think importing from the File menu’s Import is safer, as Blender’s FBX area often causes problems.

 

Add-on for drag & drop FBX import into Blender is here.

 

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Maya

FBX import into Maya can be done drag & drop into the 3D viewport.

It’s useful to quickly check the contents of the FBX.

Be careful when importing multiple FBXs, however; Maya’s default setting is that if there are objects with the same name in multiple FBXs, the objects with the same name will be overwritten when imported.

 

Maya data can also be imported by dragging and dropping Maya files into the 3D viewport.

At this time Depending on the setting of the namespace, each object’s name will automatically be prefixed. If you do not wish to add a prefix, either do not use namespaces or use the settings shown in the image below.

I don’t need prefixes when importing data.

Data can also be imported from the File menu. If you want to check the import settings each time, we recommend importing from the menu.

 

 

– FBX Export

Blender

At the moment, the biggest headache for Toha in Blender is FBX-related issues.

In the production of 3DCG for games, the work is never completed only within the 3DCG software. Eventually, models must be exported to FBX or other software and then loaded into a game engine such as UE or Unity.

 

…but the standard Blender FBX exporter causes a lot of problems.

Currently, to export clean FBX from Blender, you can use the Better FBX, a paid add-on, is a safe bet.

I think it is a must-have, especially when exporting character models that are rigged with AutoRigPRO or Rigify.

Still, I have yet to be able to do some neat animation baking, so recently I’ve been using Game Rig Tools.

 

Blender is quite popular these days, and some small game studios are using Blender as their main tool, but if there is a clean way to solve this FBX export problem, I’d like to know!

 

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Maya

FBX export from Maya is not a problem.

Can get beautiful FBX data out of it. I wonder if Blender’s FBX related is a bit special.

 

– Links and References

Blender

A similar feature to the Maya reference is the Blender link.

The difference between a link and an append is explained in detail in this article.

 

Since the model loaded with a link is unalterable, the original model cannot be inadvertently changed during motion creation, and this has the advantage that the modeler and animator can work on their respective tasks in parallel.

 

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Maya

A feature similar to Blender’s link is Maya’s reference.

References are explained in detail in this article.

 

When working in a multi-person team, such as in game development, we often load character models into Maya scenes for motion creation, basically by reference.

Using references has the advantage that modifications to the original model’s shape and textures are reflected in all motion scenes, so data management is not complicated.

 

 

– Collection and Display Layers

Blender

A feature similar to Maya’s display layer would be Blender’s collection.

For more information on the collection official manual or Commentary on this site.

 

In creating a 3D model of a character, it is easy to keep parts of the model divided into smaller parts while working and then hide/wireframe/unselect each part as needed.

At the moment, Blender can not display wireframes on a collection-by-collection basis.

We have no choice but to use a wireframe display for each object instead.

 

For more information on how to do this Blender Modeling [Addendum] explains it – take a look.

 

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Maya

A similar feature to Blender’s collections is Maya’s display layer.

This is a feature that I use very often when modeling in Maya. Each layer can have a name and a color.

 

 

– Outliner

Blender

The outliner is available in both Blender and Maya. The functions are similar.

Blender’s Outliner features include the following.

 

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Maya

Maya’s outliner features include the following.

 

– Selection of hidden and invisible vertices, etc.

Blender

In Blender, to select vertices and meshes on the invisible backside, use transparent display.

Even if a wireframe display is used in viewport shading, vertices and other objects on the other side of the object will not be visible if the display is not transparent.

 

To always be able to select vertices on the invisible side, etc., I recommend including the X-ray Selection Tools add-on. Adjust the transparency of the transparent display also, you will be able to select the back side quite comfortably.

The X-ray Selection Tools allow you to fine-tune the selection behavior with the Advanced keymap setting.

If you adjust the difference and expansion of the box selection, you will be able to select vertices and other items with the same feel as in Maya.

 

 

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Maya

In the case of Maya, the invisible backside vertices and meshes are also selected as they are.

 

If you find it difficult to select parts of the image that are not visible, you can change the setting.

If you open the Maya Preferences and check “Camera Based Selection” in the Selection Settings or turn on “Camera Based Selection” in the Modeling Toolkit, the invisible backside will not be selected.

 

 

– Whether unused materials, etc. are automatically deleted

Blender

Blender’s specification is to automatically delete unused materials.

If you create a material, but the material is not used by any object in the Blender scene, save and reopen the scene and the unused material will disappear.

 

The good news is that no unnecessary data will be left behind, but there may be cases where you plan to use the data later and do not want it to disappear.

One means of preserving data that you do not want to be lost is to set up a fake user.

The shield icon next to the material is it.

If you don’t want something to be auto-deleted, press the shield icon to set it as a fake user – especially when creating Action in motion creation!

 

You can check if the data is unused from the list of materials and actions, or the “Isolated Data” view mode in the Outliner.

For a detailed explanation of fake users, please check this website.

 

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Maya

In Maya, anything you create in a scene, material or otherwise, is not automatically deleted.

It is a good point that the data does not disappear on its own, but conversely, if you do not delete it yourself, unnecessary data will continue to remain.

 

“Scene Size Optimization” is a method for removing unnecessary data remaining in the Maya scene.

 

When creating 3DCG data using Maya, it is recommended to delete unnecessary data after the data is finally completed. Especially when creating Maya delivery data for work, you should do this!

What is removed by scene size optimization can be fine-tuned.

Once optimized, it is impossible to undo with Ctrl+Z, so be careful not to erase what you need. In the case of game model data, it is often not possible to erase the locator.

 

 

 

 

Compare Modeling Capabilities

The following is a comparison of the functions that Toha uses most frequently when modeling.

 

– With or without modifier

Blender

In Blender, you can use modifiers.

It is attached with a modifier the effect can be changed in value later, or the effect itself can be removed by deleting the modifier without applying it.

For example, with bevel modifiers, it looks like this.

Very convenient.

When modeling in Blender, there is no way to avoid using modifiers. Let’s use it as much as we can!

 

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Maya

There is no such thing as a modifier in Maya.

For example, it is difficult to delete a bevel attached to a model later and pretend that it did not exist after all.

However, beveling and other conditions can be changed to some extent later in the “History” section.

Maya also has a history, which keeps track of the work that has been done on an object.

Using histories can be convenient, but they can accumulate rapidly if left alone, and histories that are too old do not reflect effects well when tampered with.

 

For a detailed explanation of the history See Autodesk’s column for more information.

 

– Toolbar and Modeling Toolkit

Blender

When modeling in Blender, Toha often uses Toolbar.

I like it because the various tools are easy to understand visually and I don’t have to remember a lot of shortcuts.

 

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Maya

When modeling in Maya, Toha often uses the Modeling Toolkit.

 

Toha does all of its modeling and other work on a board tablet. If you keep the tool-based menus on the right-hand side, it is not hard to move the cursor to the menu.

Therefore, rather than learning a variety of shortcuts, we usually use a lot of menus that are easy to see and understand.

When modeling with a mouse, it is troublesome to move the cursor a lot, so many people make use of the pie menu and shortcuts for modeling.

 

 

– Edge flow

Blender

Currently, edge flow is not a standard feature of Blender.

If you want to do edge flow in Blender, you will have to use an add-on.

 

Toha is currently using Edge Flow add-on.

 

For more information, see our separate article.↓

 

 

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Maya

Maya’s Edge Flow is included as an option for the Multi-Cut tool.

I use the edge flow of the multi-cut tool crazily often. It’s useful.

It can also be adjusted later using “Edit Edge Flow” in the Edit Mesh menu.

 

 

– Edge slide

Blender

In Blender, the Vertex Slide/Edge Slide tool allows edge sliding.

 

I quite like the fact that when you move vertices using the vertex slide tool, etc., the UVs move with them so that the texture is not distorted.

 

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Maya

In Maya, edge sliding can be done with Ctrl+Shift+Move tool.

The great thing about Maya’s edge slide is that it can also be used with the rotate and scale tools.

The ease of use is tremendous.

 

I would like to do the same rotation and scale edge sliding in Blender as I do in Maya, but I can’t find a good way to do it… If anyone knows how to do it, please let me know.

 

– Mirror

Blender

Blender uses a mirror modifier for mirror modeling.

It is very convenient and I use it often.

By adjusting the modifier settings, it is possible to achieve not only symmetry but also top-to-bottom symmetry, and so on.

 

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Maya

There is no modifier in Maya, but there are multiple ways to mirror modeling.

 

Mirrors 1 and 2 are reflected in real-time; method 3 performs only one mirror replication at runtime.

Toha uses method 1 but sometimes uses method 3.

 

– Partial mirror

Blender

Doing partial mirror modeling with Blender’s built-in features is currently pretty tricky, but with the add-on CL LiveMirror, which lets you mirror-edit without a modifier, you can achieve partial mirror editing!

While LiveMirror is turned on, it swaps in the add-on’s dedicated mirror-editing tools, letting you mirror-edit without a Mirror modifier. Vertex movement and the like still use Blender’s built-in mirror functionality.

Right now, switching the mirror-editing tool on and off can only be done via shortcut, so it’d be even nicer if it could also be toggled with a button from the CL LM panel.

Still, being able to do partial mirror editing — something that’s always been tricky in Blender — is incredibly helpful!

 

 

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Maya

In Maya, if you turn on the symmetry setting in the modeling toolkit, you can do partial mirror modeling that also reflects extrusion and cuts in real-time.

It is very convenient. If I can’t do it, it’s a bit of a problem.

 

部The reason why partial mirror modeling is necessary is that the game’s relatively low-poly character models

I don’t want to make a perfectly symmetrical model, but I want to make a partially symmetrical model to keep production costs down.

This is because.

 

It is less expensive to make symmetrical 3D models.

However, a completely symmetrical model tends to look CG-like or cheap, so Toha always makes sure to create asymmetrical parts in the model.

It would look even better if all parts were made asymmetrical, but that would double the production time…

Therefore, as a compromise, we would like to make a model with partial symmetry.

 

 

– Proportional Editing and Software Selection

Blender

A feature similar to soft selection in Maya is proportional editing in Blender.

 

Please see Proportional Editing in a separate article for details.

 

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Maya

A feature similar to proportional editing in Blender is software selection in Maya.

Use B + left mouse click and drag to change the area to be soft-selected.

The options to change the shape of the soft shapes and whether to select by volume/surface are the same as in Blender.

 

– Fine-tuning of movement and other parameters

Blender

In Blender, fine adjustments can be made by pressing the Shift key while using tools such as Move and Rotate.

It is a feature of Blender that Toha is very fond of in a humble way. easy to use.

 

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Maya

There is no optional feature that allows Maya to reduce the amount of movement while using the tool.

Probably not. The following two functions seem to be the most likely.

To say the least, it is not easy to use.

I wish I could use the tweaking options in Maya like Blender!

 

– Various types of vertex merging

Merge around vertex

Blender

In Blender, “Merge -> Center” merges all selected vertices into one.

The default shortcut for merging is the M key.

 

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Maya

In Maya, “Edit Mesh -> Merge to Center” merges the selected vertices into one.

You may find it useful to register it with Custom Shelf or assign your shortcut.

 

Target linkage

Blender

In Blender, select the vertices you want to merge in order and do “Merge → Last selected vertex”.

If you want vertex merging like Maya’s target concatenation, you can use a Sewing union of vertices.

 

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Maya

In Maya, you can use “target concatenation” in the modeling toolkit to merge vertices that are sewn together.

It is quite a useful feature and I use it often.

 

 

– Boundary edge highlighting

Blender

Personally, I find it really useful to be able to clearly display an object’s boundary edges (mesh seams/breaks).

Since this is hard to achieve with Blender’s built-in features, I use the add-on Poly Source.

Turning on the button in the header menu highlights boundary edges, n-gons, and the like on the selected object in a clear, easy-to-see way. I’d recommend checking the transparency option too.

You can check things at a glance even while still in Object Mode — it’s a simple, easy-to-use add-on~

 

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Maya

Maya has a setting that allows boundary edges to be displayed thicker for clarity.

Open Maya’s preference settings and check Boundary Edge Highlight from the Polygon menu. Increasing the Edge Width value will always make the boundary edges appear thicker than normal edges.

Note that once the boundary edge thickness is set, Maya must be restarted once for the setting to take effect.

 

During modeling, parts are sometimes broken into smaller pieces to make the work easier. Finally, they are merged, but sometimes only the objects are merged and the vertices are forgotten to be merged.

Such areas will be immediately obvious because the mesh will be broken and the boundary edges will appear thicker.

 

– 3D Paint

Blender

Blender allows 3D painting of objects in texture painting mode.

Before texture painting, you need to assign an appropriate texture from the texture slot in the Tools tab of the sidebar.

But it’s nice to be able to draw quickly and easily.

 

There are also many dedicated add-ons for 3D painting in Blender, such as HAS Paint layers and Pbr Painter.

At the moment, Toha does not include any add-ons for 3D painting in 3DCG software, as it is sufficient to draw rough sketches. For serious 3D painting, I use SubstancePainter.

 

 

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Maya

Maya allows 3D painting with the 3D Paint tool in the texturing menu.

Maya’s 3D painting is not very pretty, so it is not suitable for serious 3D painting.

I think it could be used to draw a base or hit in 3D to draw 2D textures nicely.

 

 

– Delete History

Blender

It is not necessary to delete history in Blender.

Where do folks from Maya do things like delete histories? Is it okay if I don’t delete it? I think so, but it’s probably OK.

As I wrote in Whether unused materials etc. are automatically deleted, Blender is supposed to be designed to prevent unneeded data from remaining.

 

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Maya

For 3D models made in Maya, you should delete the history as appropriate.

As I wrote in Whether unused materials etc. are automatically deleted. Maya objects keep a history of your work history, so if you accumulate too much, Maya may start to get heavy.

Especially for character models that are created by repeatedly extruding polygons and moving vertices, there is little use for the history even if it is kept. It is no problem to delete it.

In Maya, it is also a promise to do history deletion when the model is completed.

 

 

 

Compare UV Editing

Let’s compare the tools and editors used to edit UVs after UV expansion.

 

– UV Editing Tools

Blender

You can read more about Blender’s UV expansion in the article How To Manually Unwrap UVs.

In conclusion, since it is time-consuming to edit UVs using only Blender’s standard functions, it is still a good idea to use add-ons for this as well.

 

four add-ons are introduced in the article: UniV、Mio3 UV、UVToolKit, and TexTools.

We have also compiled a list of other things to keep in mind when editing UVs in Blender, so please take a look at the article~!

 

 

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Maya

UV editing in Maya is mostly accomplished using the standard UV toolkit and UV editing menu.

This UV toolkit was not in the old Maya.

UV editing in Maya at that time was very difficult, so I used a plug-in UV editor or another software for UV development.

But Maya has evolved a lot since the old days.

The modeling toolkit was originally an external paid plug-in too, but Autodesk bought it (?) and made it a standard feature of Maya. and became a standard feature of Maya. It has a history.

 

For the parts where the standard Maya functions are not enough, we use scripts by Maya Time, a CG self-study room.

I often use MEL of aligns UVs on a grid and MEL of straighten UVs.

 

– Darken the texture displayed in the UV editor

Blender

モWhen editing the UVs of a model, you may want to display the model’s texture in the UV editor. If the texture is displayed as is, it may be too bright to see the UVs, so you may want to darken it.

In Blender, darkening a texture in the UV editor requires a few extra steps.

But if you use the “Exposure” feature in the Mio3 UV extension, you can easily make it darker.

 

If you’d like to try doing the same thing using Blender’s standard features, please check this.

 

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Maya

In Maya, the UV editor has a button to show/hide textures and a slider to change the brightness of the displayed texture.

It’s really convenient. I’m glad the same thing is now possible in Blender too, thanks to an add-on.

 

 

 

Compare Rig / Setup

I will compare the bones that are put into a character model and how to set skin weights.

 

– Armature creation and bone creation

Blender

What bones and joints are in Maya are called armatures in Blender.

It is like saying that each bone is a bone and a group of bones is an armature.

 

Blender’s armature features three modes.

 

You need to switch between each mode depending on what you want to do.

There are also differences from Maya’s bones, such as the fact that the axis of the bone’s direction of travel is fixed to the Y-axis. After the bones are created, it is possible to adjust their positions more flexibly than with Maya’s bones.

I’m still learning a lot about armature relationships!

 

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Maya

The armatures in Blender are Maya’s bones (joints).

When creating bones in Maya, just be meticulous.

 

In Autodesk’s column, Games There is a Creating skeletons in games. It’s an old article, but you still need to be careful, especially with Scale. Bones have to be made really nicely or you will cry later.

(It is sometimes better not to “throw away the joints without skin weights” in the column.)

 

By the way, here is the method that Toha recommends for creating beautiful bones in Maya.

 

When I am creating armatures in Blender, I may think, “Is it OK to edit the bone positions so much later?”. But it’s maybe fine.

 

– Rigify and HumanIK

Blender

There is an add-on for Blender called Rigify. It is like Maya’s HumanIK.

You can create a human armature with a single click, edit the position and number of bones to fit the model, and take it to the point where you can attach the rig to the model for animation creation.

 

 

Rigify is a fairly high-performance rig.

Rigs for facial expressions can be added, and there are also templates for quadruped armatures for animals.

 

However, if you want to use character models set up with Rigify in a game engine such as Unity, paid add-ons such as BetterFBX or GameRigTools, as described in the FBX export section, are almost mandatory.

Exporting a Rigify model in Blender’s standard FBX will spit out a large number of bones for the rig, resulting in data full of useless bones, making it impossible to use Unity’s Humanoid, etc.

 

Other well-known character model rig add-ons that have replaced Rigify include AutoRigPro.

 

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Maya

A feature similar to Blender’s Rigify is called HumanIK in Maya.

Here, too, you can create a humanoid skeleton with a single click, adjust the number and position of bones, and finally attach the necessary rig to the character model for animation creation.

 

Where it differs from Rigify is in the…

• HumanIK cannot create rigs for facial expressions.
• It’s a bit of a hassle to accommodate a four-legged walker.
• If you export FBX as is, you can use it immediately in Unity’s Humanoid.

Such as.

Some motion designers who work with Maya say that Maya’s HumanIK rig is a bit difficult to use, but since Toha is not familiar enough with rigs to make a comparison, he does not know the truth.

 

 

– Numerical input of weights/checking weight values for multiple vertices

Blender

Blender has Weight Paint as a way to set weights, but sometimes you’d rather type in exact weight values for selected vertices directly, instead of painting them.

Personally, I rarely use Weight Paint — I mostly just enter weight values directly.

Entering weight values numerically is possible with Blender’s built-in features. Blender does now have a spreadsheet feature, which technically lets you view a list of weight values across multiple vertices, but it’s not exactly convenient to use.

 

Up until now, the add-on Lazy Weight Tool had been helping me with entering weight values, but Blender just got an add-on with a similarly full-featured editor to the SIWeightEditor mentioned later on!

That add-on is yuzuWeightEditor.

 

Once you install the add-on, a yuzuEditor tab is added to the sidebar, from which you can open the editor.

This is exactly what I’d been hoping for~!

The Maya plugin SIWeightEditor is incredibly convenient to use, and I’d said before how much I wished something similar existed for Blender — and now it actually does! So grateful for this.

yuzuWeightEditor has documentation in Japanese, so it’s best to check there for how to use it. It’s packed with features, so at first you might not know where to start, but once you get used to it, it’s definitely a huge help!

 

And the add-on I’ve relied on for years, Lazy Weight Tool, is still just as handy.

This one shows a small weight table in the sidebar, which comes in handy for quickly checking weight values. Just keep in mind you can’t edit vertex weights in Edit Mode with it.

A recent update also added a GPU Weight Table button, which brings up a spreadsheet-style viewer as well.

 

It’s great to see Blender’s weight-related workflow getting more and more comfortable!

 

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Maya

In Maya, use the component editor to enter weights numerically.

You can check the list of weight values, enter values directly from the editor, and at least this much with Maya’s standard features.

 

However, if you want to input weight values in Maya, please use this SIWeightEditor.

Not only can weights be entered numerically, but the system is fully equipped with useful functions such as rounding to the nearest whole number, setting MAX-influence, and double-clicking on a column to lock the weight value for that column.

In addition, areas with incorrect weights are highlighted in red or yellow, making them very easy to see.

Ever since installing SIWeightEditor, weight painting work in Maya has become far more comfortable than before.

 

And now, at long last, yuzuWeightEditor — a near-equivalent editor — has become available for Blender too.

 

– Retention of weight values

Blender

Once weight values are set in Blender, they remain on the object side even after skin weighting is removed.

In Blender, vertex group value = weight value, but the vertex group is held by the object’s vertices themselves, so it does not disappear when the armature or skin weight is deleted.

 

For example, the models of the costumes sold in my BOOTH hold the vertex group.

Since the vertex group = weight values remain, there is no need to re-set the weights on the costume side when combined with the corresponding armature-included body model.

Simply pair the armature of the element with an empty group.

This is a bit unthinkable in Maya, and I think it is a great thing about Blender.

 

Also, editing an object with skin weighting applied rarely corrupts the weight values. If you create a new vertex on an object, a nice weight value will be added by itself.

It’s crazy awesome, Maya users will be impressed.

Maya weights seem to break down quickly, so I’m afraid to cut an object with skin weights on it.

The fact that the weight values remain even after skin weighting is removed is a Blender-specific feature, so the weight values will disappear when the object is exported to FBX. Please be careful about this.

 

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Maya

In Maya, when skin weighting is removed, any weight values that have been set for that model will disappear.

It is also dangerous to continue moving vertices or cutting polygons while skin weights are applied. The weights set on the model may break, and the movement of the bones and the mesh may become misaligned.

 

For this reason, Maya’s weighting work uses the

Apply skin and adjust weights ⇔ Remove skin and adjust objects

I often go back and forth between the two.

 

Since the model weights disappear once the skin is removed, we would like to save the weight values we set somewhere and load the saved weights when the skin is reapplied.

A plugin that works great here is DoraSkinWeightImpExp plugin.

DoraSkinWeight allows weight information to be saved as external data, making it much easier to export/import weights in Maya.

The standard Maya function of weight copying is not too bad in accuracy, but it cannot be used unless the object with the weights to be copied from is left behind. Toha uses both DoraSkinWeight and the standard copy.

 

 

Incidentally, if you create a new vertex on a skin-weighted object in Maya, that vertex will not have weight information; if you look at it in SIWeightEditor, it will have red text indicating an incorrect weight.

 

 

– Create intermediate blend shapes (shape keys)

Blender

What corresponds to Maya’s blend shapes is called a “shape key” in Blender, but setting up in-between shapes for a shape key is notoriously tricky in Blender.

You can set up an in-between shape key that works using drivers within Blender itself, but there was no way to export that to FBX and bring it into Unity.

 

Since that wasn’t possible… I ended up making my own add-on that can export in-between shapes to FBX!

That’s this one: FBX Shape Key In-Between.

 

I hope you’ll forgive a bit of self-promotion here.

FBX Shape Key In-Between is an add-on that sets shape keys named “Shape Key Name@Value” as in-between shapes of a target shape key, letting you preview them in Blender and export them to FBX.

When you export FBX using Blender’s built-in feature, shape keys named “Shape Key Name@Value” are automatically merged as in-between shapes.

When using a third-party FBX exporter like BetterFBX, this merging doesn’t happen automatically — but running FBX In-Between Merge on the exported FBX merges the @-suffixed shape keys into in-between shapes!

This means game character models rigged with Rigify or Auto-Rig Pro can rest easy too~

 

 

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Maya

Setting up an intermediate shape for a blendshapes in Maya is easy.

The procedure is as follows.

Now you can output to FBX and still create blendshapes that deform via intermediate shapes.

If it is in this state in FBX, it can be brought to Unity via intermediate shapes with a single slider. I would be very happy to be able to set up intermediate shapes, as they can be quite useful in game models.

 

Something I’d wanted to do for a long time is now possible in Blender, thanks to an add-on I made myself — hugely satisfying♪

 

 

 

Compare Motion Creation

Let’s compare this and that when adding motion to a character model and moving it.

 

– Action

Blender

In Blender, you can create something called an action.

Multiple actions can be created and switched to create multiple motions within a single scene.

For example, for a game motion, it would be possible to use a start frame as a standby pose and then create a derived motion from the standby pose in an action.

 

When outputting motion data from Blender to FBX, the standard exporter also has a Better FBX also has an option called “All Actions” that allows Multiple actions can be output in FBX at once.

Also, you can create multiple actions in one scene, but actions that do not have a fake user set up are in danger of being automatically deleted. Don’t forget to set the fake user for the required actions.

 

For more information on creating animations in Blender using actions and other tools, please refer to this article.

 

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Maya

Maya does not have anything like Blender’s actions.

When creating motion for games in Maya, we often separate Maya scenes for each motion.

When multiple motions are created in a scene, they are separated by frames for management purposes, and multiple motions are created by connecting them.

Multiple consecutive motions can be handled by separating the motion data when outputting to FBX or separating the motion data when loading to the game engine side.

 

– Animation Layer

Blender

Blender has NLA (non-linear animation), a feature that corresponds to the animation layer in Maya.

 

NLA is the ability to manipulate actions, allowing multiple created actions to be The ability to combine or blend multiple actions you have created to create different motions.

However, the operation method is a bit confusing and non-intuitive, so the feel is quite different from that of Maya’s animation layers.

 

If you want something like Maya’s Animation Layers for easy motion adjustment, you can use a paid add-on named Animation Layers, which is a paid add-on.

As you can see in the introduction video, it is just like Maya’s animation layer, and I think it is an add-on that will greatly help motion creation in Blender.

The Animation Layers add-on is powered by the NLA.

For this reason, it is not possible to use Blender’s NLA and Animation Layers at the same time.

Somehow, I think NLA is suitable for motion blending (e.g. lower body + upper body) and Animation Layers is suitable for adjusting and modifying a single motion. I would like to use them both.

 

 

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Maya

Maya has a standard animation layer feature.

Although Toha is not a motion expert, he learned about a useful feature in Maya called the animation layer when he was learning various things from a senior motion designer.

For more information on how to use the animation layer, please see the articles by Animlog and D Diary.

 

 

 

– Quaternions and XYZ Euler

Blender

When an armature is created in Blender, the bone rotation method is quaternion.

You can also change to Euler angles in the Bourne settings.

 

For more information on the difference between quaternions and Euler angles, please check the article on this site.

 

Quaternions have the advantage of not causing gimbal lock, but it is tricky to know how much it is rotating by looking at the numbers. It is a little difficult when creating motion.

The procedure for changing the rotation method of multiple bones from quaternions to Euler angles is as follows.

 

dskjal’s site has an answer to the question of whether to use quaternions or Euler angles when creating motion in Blender. Please take a look at this site as well.

 

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Maya

Basically, quaternions are not available in Maya.

Euler angles in XYZ order is the default setting, but the order of the rotation axes can be changed from the Attribute Editor.

 

Euler angles have the advantage of making it easy to see which direction and how much the camera is rotating by looking at the numerical values, but they can cause a problem called gimbal lock.

Gimbal lock…I still don’t understand it well enough to explain it.

 

For a detailed explanation of gimbal lock problems that can occur in Maya motion creation, please refer to Wakasugi Monogatari’s article. Click here!

 

Incidentally, when I looked up what is going on in Unity, I found that “Internally, it uses quaternions, but Inspector displays them with equivalent Euler angles”. This is getting more and more complicated.

 

 

 

Compare Other

I will compare and verify the licensing costs and other things that are of concern.

 

– Software licensing costs

Blender

Blender is a 3D CG software you can use for free — there’s no license fee, whether for commercial or non-commercial use.

 

But then you might wonder, so where does the money for developing and maintaining Blender come from? As it turns out, various companies currently support the Blender Development Fund. Even Google and Amazon are among Blender’s backers.

Superhive (formerly Blender Market), the platform where a lot of Blender add-ons are sold, is also a Gold member of the development fund, supporting Blender as a corporate sponsor.

Some of the add-ons sold on Superhive are also set up to donate a percentage of their revenue.

Thanks to the benefit of all this support, we regular users — myself included — get to use Blender for free.

 

If you’d like to support Blender as an individual, you can donate directly through the Blender Development Fund.

Support only what feels comfortable for you. But it’s the kind of thing worth remembering to appreciate every now and then.

 

 

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Maya

As of 2026, Maya licensing costs are as follows

classification	Price	license system	target group	on business	functional restriction
Maya	Annual \345,400 Monthly \44,000 1 day \3,102	subscription Annual or Monthly Contract Or pay-as-you-go 6 tokens/day	anyone	OK	none
Maya Indie	Annual amount \56,100	subscription Annual contract only	Annual gross income of 15 million yen or less Restrictions on users such as	OK	none
Maya Creative	1 day \517	pay-as-you-go 1 token / 1 day	anyone	OK	have
Maya Student Edition	free	none	Students and faculty only	NG	none

 

A standard Maya license is quite expensive, at around ¥350,000/year. That’s a tough price for most individuals to justify.

However, Maya Indie, released in 2020, is available for around ¥56,000/year. There are detailed eligibility requirements for using Maya Indie, so be sure to check the Q&A page carefully.

Note that while standard Maya offers monthly contracts, Maya Indie is only available as an annual contract.

 

Then in 2022, Maya Creative was released.

This was announced alongside the discontinuation of Maya LT, the previous budget-friendly option, and it uses a pay-as-you-go token system where you only pay for what you use. It has a few minor feature limitations, but one token gets you one day of use.

You can purchase tokens here.

 

The token is called Autodesk Flex, and it looks like just about every Autodesk product can now be used through this token-based, pay-as-you-go system. You can check how many tokens each piece of software requires in this list.

The minimum token purchase has recently changed from 100 down to 33, bringing the minimum purchase price to ¥17,061.

Maya Creative supports modeling, animation, rigging, and other core features just like the full version, so it’s essentially no problem to use for creating 3D models for games. The features you don’t get access to are things like dynamics.

Any unused tokens expire after a year, but with the lower minimum token purchase, Maya Creative has become a solid option for anyone who just wants to use Maya a little.

 

 

– Impact of Version Upgrade on Add-ons

Blender

Blender is a frequently updated software.

Every time a version of Blender is updated, new features are added or bugs are fixed. And some internal things that are not visible to the average user are also changed.

For this reason, when the version of Blender is upgraded, the add-ons you have been using may no longer be available.

 

In this article alone, which you are reading now, we have introduced many add-ons for Blender.

Currently, to use Blender comfortably, add-ons are used everywhere. But the more add-ons you use, the more the risk of “it might not work someday” increases.

If the add-on creator is willing to support Blender version updates, the problem will be solved someday if you wait for the update.

But who knows if that add-on will continue to be updated for years to come.

It is important to remember that there are concerns about the use of add-ons in Blender.

 

As something that reduces these concerns, Blender has LTS version.

 

LTS versions are promised two years of support; since LTS updates are bug fixes only, it is safe to continue using that version for two years.

Since the software specifications have not been changed for two years, it will be easier for the add-on side to support LTS.

 

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Maya

A major version upgrade of Maya is once a year.

Unlike Blender, Maya is already fairly mature software, so there are no major changes in appearance or functionality with version upgrades.

For this reason, it is unlikely that a plugin that was working will stop working after an upgrade.

 

Well, sometimes it happens~

But the premise is that we rarely use the latest version of Maya for work.

We generally use a stable version of Maya that is a little older, and when we raise the version of Maya, we often discuss it with the entire project team and then upgrade the version at the right time for everyone.

In work, I see that stability and solidity are sometimes more important than novelty.

 

 

– Footwork to incorporate new technologies

Blender

Blender is amazing in this regard. This is what surprised me just when I was writing this article.

 

AI Render is an add-on that applies image-generating AI Stable Diffusion to rendering results.

I’ll let you watch the linked video for more details, but wow – and it came out so fast!

Since Blender is open source, many people around the world are creating add-ons for Blender. Some of them are very fast and furious to make the latest technology usable in Blender.

 

Leaving aside the pros and cons of image generation AI, I think it is genuinely exciting and a dream come true.

 

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Maya

There is a conflict between responding quickly to new technologies and keeping the system stable.

That’s why I don’t think I see much that is new in Maya News.

 

But this is only especially true in the Japanese-speaking world, and many people around the world make Maya plug-ins. A little research shows that some people are doing Connect to Stable Diffusion from Maya .

There may actually be some interesting plug-ins made by individuals if you look for them.

 

As a side note, the amount of information that can be searched in Japanese is less than that in English. If you cannot find the information by searching in Japanese, we recommend that you try searching in English.

If you like, you can use this Goolge. It’s the best one for English searches that Toha has bookmarked.

 

 

Summary: Blender & Maya each have their ease/difficulty of use

Do you prefer to use Blender or Maya for making 3DCG?

Sometimes I am asked. When Toha answers such questions,

Do you prefer scissors or a cutter knife for making Cutting Art?

I often use the analogy that.

 

If you can make the cutout you want to make, you can use either tool and if you want, you can use different tools at different points in the process.

I think the most important thing is “what kind of cutting art you make” and not “what kind of tools you use.”

 

And this is the same when making 3DCG.

Blender and Maya each have their ease of use/difficulty, but both offer many useful features for creating the 3D models you want to make.

I would be happy to use either, and if you want, you can use them at different points.

 

I’ve only used Blender, or I’ve only used Maya, but I’m interested in both software.

In such cases, I hope this article will be of some help!

 

 

Last but not least, this article comparing Blender and Maya was very hard to write~

29,000 words are too long – but I spent more time researching and verifying than writing. I did my best to write this article, so if you found it good or useful, please feel free to tweet me with your thoughts.

Also, you can support Toha by throwing money or PixivFANBOX.

I look forward to working with you!