Mac vs PC - Which is Best for Animation?

 

Anyone thinking of starting with us at Animation Apprentice is September might be asking themselves - What platform is best for animation in Maya - a PC or a Mac? The good news is - you can use either one.  The bad news (for Mac users anyway) is - the PC is probably better.




We recommend a PC for several reasons.  First of all, our course videos are recorded on a PC, and the interface is a little different on the Mac. Second, a number of free Maya plug-ins are much easier to install on a PC.

In particular, the Parent Master plugin, which is very useful for attaching and un-attaching objects in Maya, is not easy to install on the Mac. Finally, audio playback in Maya can be troublesome on a Mac.

The ZV Parent Master Plugin

These are all small reasons, and none them mean that you can't run Maya on a Mac. But, personally, I use the ZV Parent Master plugin a lot for attaching and un-attaching objects in Maya, and I find that, without this tool, the process can be pretty fiddly and annoying.

Still, as any techhead will tell you, Macs can be run on special dual-boot software, so you can boot it up in Windows if you prefer. And, hey presto - you have an instant PC. And Macs are lovely. I am writing this on my MacBook Pro - a beautiful machine, and I would not be without it.

Personally, I have both a Mac and a PC. For animation, I use my PC. For everything else, I use my Mac.

For more information on the technical requirements to take our course, check out this useful page at our website.
 
----Alex