The rules did seem to mean that only autodesk software should be used, but they never actually said that no other software may be used. I played it safe and took them to mean that only autodesk software should be used for the modeling and animation.
Having never used 3DStudio MAX before, I spent the first four weeks (after the kickoff) teaching myself to use MAX. Then I started trying to working on the actual animation. My attempts failed miserably. By the weekend before the deadline, I had a character, an environment, and most of the objects in the environment all modeled, mostly lighted, and mostly textured. I then gave up because I couldn't finish touching up the environment, fully animate, and render the whole animation in one weekend, being basically the sole animator for my team. Oh well... At least I learned MAX,
and since I now do, next year I
will make an animation for my team.