From Big Red gum campaigns to screensavers for Wired, The ATTIK relies on Maya. Courtesy of The ATTIK.

Gene Nazarov, 3D animator at commercial house ATTIK, says, "Maya is we use. I started with 3D Studio Max, but soon realized how much more potential Maya has. The capabilities are broader and easier to digest, the animation is better and more reliable. No wonder all the movie studios are turning toward this application."

Film: While more films than ever are using LightWave and Max for effects and animation shots, there are really two main packages in this market: Maya and Softimage. Does that mean that you need to run out and learn Maya or Softimage if you want to work in film? The answer is yes and no.

Stuart Lowder, animation manager at Industrial Light & Magic, puts less emphasis on software knowledge and more on an applicant's animation skills. "I don't think it matters, which software you learn, as long as you get into a package and show the ability to animate. It's not the specific software -- you can really demonstrate animation talent with puppets. What we would be looking for is the skill set of an animator, more than software knowledge.

"If you want to be an effects animator, Maya is what we use; on the character animation side it's Softimage. Once we've hired someone, [we provide] all the technical training they'll need. This runs about eight weeks, and assumes that the animation skills are there, so we don't have any support for teaching people how to animate. That said, the more technical skills you have the better off you're going to be. I compare technical skills in 3D animation to having great drawing skills for traditional animators."

And in most cases, a large production will involve the use of many different 3D packages. Michael David Smith of Softimage says, "Large companies use everyone's software; if you look at the demo reel for any 3D program, they all share many of the same shots. It's the smaller companies who choose just one package because of a tighter budget."

The Numbers
Most of the employers' listings on the job board at CreativePlanet.com link a specific 3D package to a job opening. Here are the percentages from the April listings:

Maya: 45%
Max: 21%
Any: 17%
LightWave: 6%
Softimage: 6%
Other: 5%

The 17% that responded "Any" usually require knowledge of at least one high-end 3D app, such as Maya, Max, Softimage, LightWave, Houdini, Electric Image, Cinema 4D, etc.