Cheaper Alternative to Maya but of Similar Quality

Atilla;

If you take a look on the Student Perks page here at Treehouse, there is an offer for a Free 3-year student license to Maya LT. That may help out on the budget a bit.

Happy coding,
Ken

If you are a student and don't need to produce commercial work, you might consider the student license for Maya. And if you are working for a company that wants you to do this type of work, then they should be springing for the commercial license (unless you're freelancing).

As others have said defiantly go to blender i used to do 3d dev work in college before i moved degrees and blender is amazing! Would also check out blender guru and blender cookie.com to learn how to get started with it as well as the blender artist community to ask questions ect

In my personal experience,

MayaLt free for students

For making games, Blender is more powerful option. If you do not like Blender or other Autodesk solutions [MayaLt (800usd), Maya, Alias, Z-brush, 3ds Max, AutoCAD, Mudbox, ], The only I can imagine is Rhino 2- 3- 4 or 5 (Second hand) and Blender combination.

MayaLt is a nice entry level software for simple assets. Is not similar quality to Maya since you can't make or import HD nurbs. There is no IGES importer, no tanget controll, etc. So for making a space ship, a car, airplane, train, boat with nice looking industrial design shape, MayaLt is not 100% good (Is a good 75%). You can make simple models like in the course and more, but not for getting a perfect hi-level professional model. The surface will be soft and in game they will look like toys, with big tolerance and there will be no good round radius continuity in the shape of the curves. And if you want to make a toy from your product is not possible to export in IGES for the stamp. All this is not important in the first 5yr of modelling but will become a problem after 5yr experience modeler.

Rhino is not specific for video game and they try to avoid all relation with it. Is more like Alias. Alias and Rhino are more Industrial design modelling approach. So the feeling of the surface are much better using Alias and Rhino for industrial design than Blender or Maya. Maya, MayaLt and Blender are good for making soft organic surface, bones , UV mapping, etc. So If you use Rhino (US$ 995) for modelling for example a AAA Ferrari car, then you need to pass to Blender to make the correct UV mapping and re topology of the model. I understand that Blender interface is the worst interface I have ever try. But when you try it hard after 1yr it will work well for all you need in the game industry. Better than MayaLT plus is update.

MayaLt is nice overall for learning and as first product. But not good in the specific task when you start to make good staff. Is not possible to make a rendering but is possible to bake occlusion. The introduction course here in teamtreehouse.com came with 3yr student license ( not for commercial use ).

Cinema 4d (3700 usd) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_4D is other option but is better for making renderings. ZBrush-4R7 800USD and is specific for gaming and soft organic surface and now industrial surface too. Other 3D: LightWave _3D (1000Usd) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightWave_3D but then you need to add (300) for making bones, and is not perfect for making industrial surface design. So in conclusion depends on what kind of surface are you looking for in your game. If you are making a house or a building, use google Sketchup, modelling a toon or alien Blender or Zbrush, industrial design Car, airplane, boat use Rhino and Blender to make organic surface, uv mapping, baking occlusion and rigging. In the process you will need all this tools to make the UV mapping in other software. And if you like you can finish passing through substance painter to paint the textures.

In my personal opinion there is no perfect software that makes all.

Here is a list link just like reference http://3dprint.com/87111/i-materialise-top-25-software/ In the case of Rhino you must add the values of grasshopper since it comes with it. There is no indication of Maya Lt since is new but probably is next low Maya

Blender is amazing. You should probably check it out.