You're not seriously asking if you should use a stolen Program, don't you?
Blender is a great program that does not need to hide behind Max, Maya or any other professional 3Dprog.
And the best thing is : Its totally FREE.
Judging from what you said, I'd say go with what you can LEGALLY use. If you can get Max legally, I'd say go with using Max. You might not want to go industrial or pro, but Max is a overall better program than Blender.
Don't get me wrong though- Blender is a great piece of software. If you can't get Max legally, opt for Blender. For 3D work, the program matters less and less these days. Chances are fair that Blender can afford you all the flexibility and creativity that you will ever want and need. And... if you ever did go commercial with 3d work and wanted to switch to Max, relearning your workflow for Max instead of Blender wouldn't be too difficult.
If you want a more technical list of Blender vs Max, Google yields some good search results. Cheers!
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Blender is a great program that does not need to hide behind Max, Maya or any other professional 3Dprog.
And the best thing is : Its totally FREE.
Don't get me wrong though- Blender is a great piece of software. If you can't get Max legally, opt for Blender. For 3D work, the program matters less and less these days. Chances are fair that Blender can afford you all the flexibility and creativity that you will ever want and need. And... if you ever did go commercial with 3d work and wanted to switch to Max, relearning your workflow for Max instead of Blender wouldn't be too difficult.
If you want a more technical list of Blender vs Max, Google yields some good search results. Cheers!