I am thinking of joining the team for my school next year for the animation comp. I know that it is ran by Autodesk (discreet) and they judge the comp. or what not. What I was wonering it u can use other programs than the ones provided. I prefer SoftImage| XSI and Maya 4 over 3d studio max (though 3DS is quicker some times) I was just wondering since it is a autodesk comp. Can I use the other programs (i.e. XSI)???
my personal opinion you should be able to use any programs under the Autodesk / Discreet company name. However you might want to call up Autodesk or FIRST to see what the rules are as to what programs you may use to compete in the Animation / 3d contests.
If all those programs are LEGAL I don’t think there would be much of a problem.
Last I checked any animation software is legal…but I wouldnt post in your credits that you used Lightwave or something like that in an autodesk sponsored competition…
Not legal as in legal in the competition, legal as bought with money legally.
The actual official ruling is that they don’t want animations that don’t look like they were made in Max, so if you want to model something or animate something you can do it in another program but the actual rendering should be done in Max. With Max 5 though it will probably get easier to render with other programs so you might want to look into that as well.
Thanx, I understand the idea that I can only use legal programs and not coughmhmwarez mhcough and I will be intrested to see if I even need to use these programs when max 5 comes out, because personally I don’t think the scanline render in 3ds 4.2 is that good. That and my school won’t pay for entropy or mental ray (haha renderman is out of the question then I guess 
) well anyway thanx for the help