Can we use Maya?
 

A member of our team specializes in Maya, and has access to some small company’s lab where he can work. Is it a good idea to use non-AutoDesk software in the animation for 3D work? I guess he could adapt to 3DS if he needs to, but it would be better if he could use what he was familiar with...

Do you think it's acceptable?

As I've mentioned on a few other threads regarding using other software on the animation, the description of the judging criteria for the animation award specifically says "3dsmax and other Autodesk software"...you're going to want to get an official OK from FIRST/Autodesk before using any non-Autodesk software.

Ah. Thanks. I sould have searched...

The Autodesk people last year didn't have a problem with people using some othe programs for their work (IE, modeling the robots in Rhino because it handles booleans without the face loss bug) as long as the majority of the work and the final renderings were done in MAX. I don't know if the same rule applies, but you should be able to do the key modeling in MaYa if you can find a way to export to MAX.. unless 4.2 will import binary files, come to think of it. Anybody had luck hopping between MAX and MaYa so far?

we are doing good with max and lightwave together, using Rhino as a go between

if you have a file, rhino should convert it.