Final Fantasy XI trailer.

[nobbie]

>Yes, you will, because Maya has a flexible, node-based approach to doing things that is different from 3ds max's less flexible, object-oriented approach.

Ok you have to excuse my ignorance here.  What does "node based" mean?

A "node" is the smallest, underlying unit in Maya, whereas an "object" is the smallest unit in 3ds max. Nodes are much smaller, more flexible units than objects (which have a fixed set of parameters and purpose) and provide the excellent integration of all tasks you will finally see on Maya's "surface". Every node in Maya can be somehow connected to another node, so that the functions are seemlessly connected. It's a bit difficult to explain the power of that concept - best would be to download the new Maya 5 PLE on October 15, and work through the introductory tutorials :)

As far as the games industry goes: I have heard that most game artist jobs in the U.K. already require Maya knowledge now, and bigger U.S. game companies like Lucas Arts are already full on Maya (according to their job offer pages). Blizzard is just partly Maya, especially for their new console game stuff. I have no idea though, why they still bother with 3ds max at this point, especially for their teaser trailers and in-game cinematics. Must be the huge investments they have already made into 3ds max in the past, and the tons of 3ds max plug-ins they employ (for hair/fur, dynamics, s/fx, particles, character animation etc etc). I recently got job offers from California that stated "Expertise in a 3D software package (Maya a plus)", so the industry in the U.S. seems to go the Maya route soon, too. Considering that Linux is free and the Maya 5 PLE for Linux is free, this seems to be the natural solution, because you save oodles of money in educating and training artists this way. 3ds max (Windows-only, btw) in its current state is dead, if you ask me. That is again the typical result of a greedy company that has made tons of profits with their "cash cow" during the past years, but invested little in the development. Maya is now - in its current state - about 2 generations ahead of 3ds max, it costs just half the price, and the customer is the laughing third :)