How widespread is Bryce used in the Animation/3D Commercial community? Are Maya and Lightworks more industry standard than Poser and Bryce?

Yes. The most used I see (all depends on where you look) is 3DSMax, Maya, Lightwave, Softimage.

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I've been learning Maya on my own for the last few months. The ability to model, texture and animate in Maya is only surpassed by it's steep learning curve. When I was taking Game Design courses at a nearby college, I created some really great environmental and character models in Bryce. (link) Soon, reality set in and I realized that in order to further my concepts, I would have to remodel everything in Maya. Besides the modeling capabilities of Maya, Maya has the complex scripting capabilities which are necessary to develop games and top quality animations. I am happy to say that Bryce does compliment Maya! If you know Bryce, the modeling, texturing and animation features will make it easier to understand those features in Maya. I find myself constantly comparing the two. Although Bryce cannot surpass Maya in it's features, , , it is a great primer to the higher end 3D apps.

I constantly find myself appauled at how difficult apps like 3DMax, Maya, Lightwave etc are to learn. Bryce is still the easiest IMO to get on with. Just to figure out where the primitives are in MAX is a nightmare. Nowadays, if the app has a quartered screen I don't even bother with it. And this is where Wings3d comes in. I figure that, if you have ambitions in the industry, spend a year learning the big stuff. If you haven't, you can get along just fine with Bryce/Poser/Wings3d.

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All the Woes of a World by Jonathan Icknield aka The Bryster

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i am shocked by how often i see bryce used. mostly on science related shows with terrain fly-by's and such... you cant miss bryce stars either so alot of mid to late 90's science shows used bryce alot for simple animations...