Due to the fact that my first experience with any 3D modeling software was using Maya at my ZERO VFX internship in undergrad, I was already somewhat familiar with this type of program, and I found Tinkercad to be a much less intensive version of what I'd already been working with. In spite of this, "less intensive" is not necessarily a bad thing because the ease of access that Tinkercad affords is extremely enjoyable when compared to the high skill ceiling of Maya. When I originally started working with Maya, I had to undergo about a week of tutorials to even become comfortable with simplistic actions in the software (i.e. placing, transforming, and arranging shapes). Conversely, with Tinkercad, I was off to the races in about 10 minutes and I became engrossed in the creative experience far sooner. Additionally, I think Tinkercad offers an interface that is more lively and playful when compared to its more professional counterparts; rather than featuring exclusively muted or gray shapes in a manner akin to Maya, Tinkercad's shapes are colorful, fun and almost toy-like, effectively giving the entire interface a more playful aura. When working with Maya, I couldn't help but feel that I was doing work, but Tinkercad felt like I was actually playing and exploring--and this makes the software ideal for both working artists and the art classroom alike. One other small thing that I noticed was that that there is an immense difference between working with Tinkercad on a desktop computer, and performing the same actions on a laptop. When I went home to tweak my project, I found the loss of a conventional mouse to be a huge barrier in terms of accessibility. Everything from moving the shapes, to even moving the grid itself became far more difficult, however, this is merely a minor inconvenience and can be fairly easy to work around if home-based artists have the foresight to find or purchase a USB mouse.
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