/3/ - 3DCG

>>771345
In my limited and subjective opinion, Blender = Max = Modo > Maya = Cinema

All of them are usable, none of them have any "oh my god holy shit how could I live without knowing the true path" features (that I know of). Something like SketchUp might with its destructive extrude and pencil shenanigans, but it's only really suited to architectural modeling. And Houdini is unique because you can do wacky procedural shit like webm related, but it's not practical in any way if you just need to model a chair in two minutes.

Most people don't use Maya because its modeling toolkit is incredible, they use it because it's decent for character animation, rigging, XGen, UVs, etc, has a billion plugins, and integrates well with studio pipelines. The fact that you can also model or sculpt in it without having to switch to another application is just a bonus. Max is the other way around, it has strong modeling tools which are the primary focus, but while you're there you can also use it for rigging and animation.