[Kevin Thorp]

If you're comfortable with Blender or other 3d program, then 3ds Max will seem alien & frustrating, at first. But if you keep at it you'll start to like Max, and the interface will become more natural to use.

A few years ago I had a student that was pretty good with Inventor. He spent the first couple weeks complaining about how stupid 3ds Max was. As time went by he complained less and less, and eventually helped us win a regional animation award. The funny part was next year I heard him trying to tell a freshman animator to be patient.

Autodesk is hosting the competition so they of course require you to use their products. I think it's great they're donating 1-year licenses of very expensive professional software to all FRC teams.

As a bonus, if you go to a digital arts college or get a job in the multimedia industry, they'll probably be using 3ds Max or Maya.