DV Info Net - Recommendations for 3D and compositing?

maya has a pretty large piece of the pie in the movie industry, primarily because its animation toolset is very robust, 3ds max owns the game industry because of its strong poly modeling tools, and xsi has a very big presence in broadcast. that certainly doesn't mean 3ds max isn't used in hollywood, or that maya doesn't do work in games. you'll also see other, maybe smaller apps used for special purposes, like houdini, for its strong particle tools.

a lot of creative boutiques and production houses seem to have switched over to maya in recent years, and i'm seeing more maya files pass through my hands these days than files from the other apps. as a result, i'm getting acquainted with maya now, after using 3ds max almost exclusively since version 2.5.

all the high-end 3d packages are massive. i would venture to say there are things in each program you will probably never use, let alone master. my process seems to be learn as you need ... then forget :). keep in mind that 3d shops have individuals and teams that specialize in modeling, texturing, character rigging, animation, rendering, and compositing, and i've yet to meet any one person who can say they've mastered it all.

maya with the mental ray renderer can render photorealistic results. 3ds max has mental ray bundled as well, and phenomenal renderers in third-party plug-ins like brazil and vray. all the major 3d apps can, or have plug ins, that will allow you to generate a photorealistic render. mental ray and other reality-based lighting rendering solutions are extremely complex in themselves, with a myriad of options and parameters, and all will eat up massive amounts of hours (to days!) as you wait for a render sequence to complete.

i would say if you had to choose one application, given that this is a filmmaker's forum, focusing on maya wouldn't be a bad move.