Adobe After Effects vs. Autodesk Maya

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe After Effects
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Adobe After Effects allows users to create cinematic movie titles, intros, and transitions, remove an object from a clip, start a fire or make it rain, or animate a logo or character. The vendor states that with After Effects, users can apply motion-graphics and animation to any digital object.
$20.99
Per User Per Month
Autodesk Maya
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Autodesk offers Maya, a 3D animation, modeling, simulation and rendering tool available to artists, animators, and educators, used to create realistic characters, models, and scenes, as well as effects such as explosions, cloth movement, etc.
$234
per month
Pricing
Adobe After EffectsAutodesk Maya
Editions & Modules
Annual Plan (Paid Monthly)
$20.99
Per User Per Month
Monthly Plan
$31.49
Per User Per Month
Annual Plan (Prepaid)
$239.88
Per User Per Year
Monthly
$235
per month per user
Yearly
$1875
per year per user
3-Year
$5625
3 years per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe After EffectsAutodesk Maya
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsMaya is also available through Autodesk's Flex plan and pricing. Tokens expire 1 year from date of purchase. Not all products and features are available with Flex. Students and teachers at qualified academic institutions worldwide are eligible for free access to Autodesk software for one-year through the Autodesk Education Community.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe After EffectsAutodesk Maya
Considered Both Products
Adobe After Effects
Chose Adobe After Effects
Compared to other software, Adobe After Effects is more useful for motion graphics and composition. Adobe After Effects is simpler and easier to use for video editing and adding effects.
Chose Adobe After Effects
After Effects is on par with most of these other non-Adobe software. It is able to edit, create, render, illustrate, stabilize video content; and so much more.
Autodesk Maya
Chose Autodesk Maya
We were evaluating the products within the Adobe portfolio like Adobe Animate, Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe After Effects majorly among few others before finalising on the Autodesk Maya. One of the major reasons for that was earlier experience with the Autodesk Maya tool for the …
Chose Autodesk Maya
Autodesk Maya is better than these other softwares because Autodesk Maya is a software that does not have updates every time, and this means that you do not have to waste time seeing what has been updated and what has not.
Chose Autodesk Maya
Animating in Autodesk Maya is much more convenient and easier in comparison to Blender. It's easier to use features like constrains, motion trails, and attribute editors in Autodesk Maya. Most of the time I use Blender for modeling and Autodesk Maya for animation. Either way, I …
Best Alternatives
Adobe After EffectsAutodesk Maya
Small Businesses
Autodesk Maya
Autodesk Maya
Score 8.6 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 7.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Blender
Blender
Score 9.2 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 7.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Animate
Adobe Animate
Score 8.3 out of 10
Navisworks
Navisworks
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe After EffectsAutodesk Maya
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(39 ratings)
9.0
(8 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(8 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.9
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe After EffectsAutodesk Maya
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
I would recommend Adobe After Effects to a colleague above all other comparable software that I have used, however, with the caveat that it can be time-consuming to learn to use and can be frustrating if you are not familiar with the software. Difficulty aside, once you begin to understand how to use Adobe After Effects, it is the only software for the job.
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Autodesk
Autodesk Maya is a great software, it has so many tools that you can create a full movie without even jumping to any other software. Although it's pretty hard to learn but there is nothing more fun, once you get a hang of it. In general, its tools are best for modeling and animation.
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Pros
Adobe
  • Adobe After Effects allows you to exercise a great level of control over how to animate just about every aspect of an object. You can control animation speed of entry and exit, the direction of rotation, scale, position, and so many more attributes.
  • Adobe After Effects is so popular that you can find so many paid and free third-party plug-ins and scripts to incorporate into your project.
  • There is such a breadth and depth of features available in Adobe After Effects, you will never get tired of exploring the program and using its many features to take your projects to new heights
  • Adobe After Effects works well with other products in the Adobe Creative Suites including, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Media Encoder
  • Adobe After Effects allows you to customize the setup of your workspace and panels
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Autodesk
  • Easy to build workflow due to strong customizability.
  • Industry share. Easy to collaborate with other companies.
  • Strong cooperation with other software.
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Cons
Adobe
  • I would like the Re-Link file structure to mimic Premiere.
  • I would like to see native .obj importing and manipulation.
  • I would like to see better audio editing available within Adobe After Effects. if it could be given a separate layer/panel.
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Autodesk
  • Right now Maya has no good viewport like Blender 2.8 has. It is good that Maya 2019 devs focused on performance and stability but it's strange to see that mainstream soft aren't on trend in developing really cool and helpful tools.
  • Maya LT is very good for artist who don't need complex FX tools. So the devs must add python API to Maya LT.
  • Add more helpful tools to modeling section especially for retopology.
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
I will renew my use of After Effects since it's affordable and always has been reliable. They also always continue to update new features and add new things to compete with other software out there. I also like all the 3rd party plugins out there that keep my interest for the future and new toolsets and creative solutions.
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Autodesk
No answers on this topic
Usability
Adobe
There's a lot of features and functionality that Adobe After Effects offers that can be hard to navigate at times. Depending on the depth you plan to use the software for, that can take some time to learn. The built-in templates and tutorials really help soften that learning curve. Once you get past some of the basics, it's fairly simple to use.
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Autodesk
As Autodesk Maya was one of the first softwares I learned, so I feel very fun to work with it. The overall usabilty feels very natural to me and I felt it's easy to learn but tough to master kind of software. Some people find it very difficult to learn, so I deduced some rating points.
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Support Rating
Adobe
Adobe customer support is wonderful. They genuinely care about their product and the end user experience. The products they create have always been innovative and continue to improve. They have a huge chunk of the user market in their field and still strive to improve. This is such a big deal for me and other small business/organizations that need their products and don't have a large voice on our own.
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Autodesk
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Adobe
I find Adobe After Effects to be superior to iMovie and Final Cut Pro in that I am able to do much more with the software. It isn't as limiting as the other two. I also like that it isn't an Apple product. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Apple. There is a bigger learning curve with After Effects, but once you get the hang of it, there's really no comparison.
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Autodesk
We were evaluating the products within the Adobe portfolio like Adobe Animate, Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe After Effects majorly among few others before finalising on the Autodesk Maya. One of the major reasons for that was earlier experience with the Autodesk Maya tool for the engineer and also it has more to offer than Adobe with multiple products.
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Return on Investment
Adobe
  • Adobe After Effects has a great impact on business as maximum work can be done in one software
  • To run this software you need to have good configuration system
  • Motion Graphics, 2d Animation and video editing can be done in one software
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Autodesk
  • Effectively able to get the designs created and visualised
  • Video creation for concepts has become easy
  • ROI has been good, but if the costing is brought down then its even more amazing
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ScreenShots