3ds max and maya have heaps of advanced functionality and go way back. There is a lot there to crawl through before you get any decent work done. Not sure about Maya, but 3ds has basically been adding functionality with every release without dramatic changes in the workflow. So it's not the most ergonomic software out there. Quite the opposite of MoI in that respect. You can do almost anything - with the manual within reach.

Modo and Cinema 4d are a lot more intuitive and probably more than powerful enough for your needs.