"Is it worth me investing in buying Maya?"

Actually, one of the only reasons so many large studios depend on Maya is because of it's strong connection to PRman renderer, which is an industry standard for hi-end movie and video rendering due to it's vast modularity and superior rendering quality. Connectivity with just about any other 3D app is a serious problem for any version of PRMan (although now that Autodesk owns both Maya and 3dsmax, you may see Max get a stronger connection to it as well).

I don't like to drop names, so I'll just say that I had worked for several studios in the past years that used Maya, but knowing the app inside-out was not a prerequisite to landing the job. My portfolio at the time consisted mostly of 3dsmax works, with some XSI as well.

The translation between the "big 3 or 4" apps is pretty smooth for the most part, with some exceptions. For instance, I picked up on Maya's workflow fairly quickly. The hardest part is getting used to the different interface, and some new tools.

Message edited on: 01/06/2006 15:20