3D Animation - Software Comparison
Comparison Between Maya and Blender
Blender
In trying to compare the two tools, it’s easiest to start with Blender.
Blender is a modern 3D creation software, that is widely used and open source (aka, 100% free to use) ever since 2002.
Blender attempts to be a “jack of all trades” in the 3D software world, and as of recent years, is receiving widespread adoption, both with hobbyists and professionals.
Maya
Maya is a modern 3D creation software, with focus specifically on modeling and animation.
Maya is a somewhat-expensive subscription software (but free for college students).
Maya only focuses on the functionality it needs, and otherwise expects to be used as part of a suite of other software within a larger pipeline.
With that said, Maya still contains quite a bit of functionality for a large portion of the Animation Pipeline.
If Maya costs money and Blender is free, why ever use Maya?
Honestly, the answer to this depends on your purpose for using it.
As stated, Blender is a “jack of all trades”. It has overall more functions and tasks it can do, compared to Maya. But in regard to the “animation” part of the pipeline, most industry leaders consider Maya as more specialized for large company pipelines.
In other words, at least among industry leaders, it might be more apt to consider Blender a “jack of all trades, but master of none.” Currently, this applies to almost any software comparison that includes Blender. It can do a lot, but doesn't specialize in anything.
Having said that, Blender still has A TON of functionality, and is getting constant updates. It can even do maybe 90% of what Maya can do. For hobbyists, and even small businesses, Blender handles most needs, and the savings in money makes it worth considering.
And as Blender continues to grow and get adopted, it will increasingly become a viable alternative to other industry software.
Maya really shines for large AAA companies in the animation and movie industry. These companies handle large amounts of money, and all that matters in is the quality of their “final product”. These companies want the best-of-the-best, and are willing to pay for it. These companies also usually have a direct line to Maya support staff, and often even have custom-made versions of Maya, built just for their company’s needs.
Other Differences
Community Support
Since Blender is open-source, it naturally has a strong community of individuals that want to help out and make things better. So Blender has an incredible amount of tutorials, publicly answered questions, software-addons, and more, which make it much easier to learn the software as an individual, during free time.
Meanwhile, because Maya is proprietary, the code is closed off. The companies that use it tend to also compete with each other, so any questions and tutorials are often locked behind closed doors.
That’s not to say that Maya has no public support, it just has less.
Update Frequency
Both sets of software get frequent updates. There are constantly changes, improvements, new features, and more.
However, as of recent years, Blender is trying really hard to make a name for itself. So it has very frequent updates (usually about three major updates a year, plus many small bugfix updates), often including large swaths of functionality additions and changes.
Maya is already cemented as a player in the industry, so it doesn't have quite as many large-scale changes. Maya is less likely to change the interface and break existing workflows.