Maya If I'm wanting to dabble in 3d animation as a hobby,

Don't you think >>>/3/ would be a better place to ask?

>>2930850
I forgot that place existed.

>>2930802
if you work basically in 2d, and plan to occassionally use something 3d, the best alternative is blender.

now, if you plan to become a 3d pro, it would be wiser to become half-proficient at least in a dozen of the most commonly used programs.

3d world lacks a gold standard such as Photoshop in 2d

>>2930984
> if you work basically in 2d, and plan to occassionally use something 3d, the best alternative is blender.

More like whatever software ou prefer. If you technically doesn't use those for jobs then you can keep using pirated versions of other softwares without any problem.

Maya if you want to work in a studio. Blender if you want to sell your shit or work freelance.

the reason being 80% of all studios will be using maya or some derivative in-house version of it for animation. The other 20% being indie game devs using blender/3ds.