yes you heard me free maya coming in feb.2002… its a non comercial free learner edition… you must go here to register http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/Community/Special/ple_announce/index.html just thought i would let all you guys know…
The deal with it is that it is truly a learner’s edition. It operates exactly the same way as the full version, which means that it would be great for anyone wishing to learn the program in order to try and get into a position that uses it professionally. On the down side, all images get watermarked by the program and it uses a special file format so that you can’t export from it to anything else or send files created by it to a full version of Maya for use there.
In short, it is meant completely for non-professional use and they have taken pains to make sure that it doesn’t get used professionally. Those measures also make it useless for a hobbyist, it seems.
I agree aurick.
It’s like giving some a dead puppy. Cute and useless.
gmax is a bit better, at least there are no water marks.
But let’s face it, you want it? You are gonna pay BIG for it. That, or sign up for 2 classes at a community college, and then get the student license. 
There are some FINE freeware choices if you want to learn the essence of Max and Maya and Nendo.
Anim8or
Blender
Wings 3D
If you can get those down, well, all you really are missing is understanding a new interface. The basics of NURBS, splines, metaballs, armatures, animation, etc you’ll understand. It’s transferrable.
You think the Learning Edition is bad? The student license is worse! You pay $500 (Complete) or $700 (Unlimited) for a program that will cease to function 1 year from the date that you buy it or 90 days after graduating school, whichever comes first. Then, if you’re not working for a company that has the program, you have to pay that same amount again if you’re still in school or spend the full $8000/$16000 for your own regular copy.
If A/W really wanted to benefit students, they’d make the full version of the program inexpensive enough that universities could put it on their systems. Then all students would be able to use it while they were in school without getting raped worse than they are for textbooks.
My two cents.
Having taken a digital compositing course at Vancouver Film School, I have a bit of experience with the way Alias/Wavefront works, and I know how tight they get! (My instructor actually got fired after I finished my course, because of one texture he generated on a S/G workstation at school, and took home to use on his own system!) I say, wait until one of the resident bright lights at Pixologic or on the forum invents the ‘Animation’ script we’re all dying to see!
being naive and all I have a question…what does an 8000 dollar program do that cant be done on zbrush or not too far off in the future for zbrush? What makes the program worth that type of money…maybe zbrush II?, a companion to zbrush to do all that the other competition programs do? something to not have to use everyone elses programs? something that the average person like me can afford? hmmmm…yall are the seasoned experts…maybe the big suits need a run for their money in the open market…if a new program can do it all at the same level as the big boys but can be distributed for pennies on their dollars and eliminate the eliment of greed…well I am rambling and thinking out loud…just a thought 
or a wish
Actually, as Z sits the 8K program does ALOT as far as animation, particles, FX, advanced modeling with NURBS, metaballs and the rest.
It is also the “standard” in the industry. Go to monster.com and do a search for 3D jobs with keywords like “3D” “animation”…
All the job descriptions with contain, Maya, Lightwave, 3D Studio Max, Director and few other editing/FX software. ZBrush is not part of the pool of tools currently considered “standard” (YET)
BUT let’s remember how old Z is compared to the standard professional packages. AND let’s remember the difference between Z Buffer and the rest…
almost apples and oranges.
I got maya complete and I have to say that it is mostly animation software. for illustrations is much easyier and faster to use ZBrush… Espacialy modeling and texturing is toy in ZBrush when comparing to Maya… If you want to animate theater movies buy Maya if you want to illustrate (like me) use ZBrush 
This is turning into an interesting thread, and I hope Pixologic is watching the discussion…!
I had Maya Unlimited on my computer, found it to be wonderful, if complex software for animation, particle effects, and animation physics goes, but incredibly intricate to actually use. You spend a lot of time filling in little boxes, do the equivalent of a flash-render, then go back to filling in little boxes, and rendering again…
If you have a good library in your area check out ‘Mastering MAYA COMPLETE 2’ by Harovas, Kundert-Gibbs, and Lee, or ‘Digital Effects Animation using Maya’ by Kian Bee Ng, who incidently is certified by A/W as a ‘Principal Instructor’…You’ll quickly see the difference in the complexity. My school had two instructors, working at the same time, in the same class to teach the program.
I’m a believer in ZBrush because I think animation is possible with it, with proper planning. I’m working on ‘Alice In Wonderland’ as a major project, using Tenniels’ illustrations as the model for my characters, and as Kat has pointed out on the forum, a ‘Claymation’ approach with sequential image files, combined with a video-editing system opens a few surprising doors in regard to animation. For instance, make a head…render it…save the head…move the lips…render the new head…
Repeat as necessary.
Labor intensive? Yes…
Possible to do high-level animation?
In my opinion, a definite yes! Now, if the script genies get into this, who knows what parts of this could be automated…
My 2 cents worth…
this thread is getting interesting indeed.
personally, i dont like maya, because of the interface and the whole concept underneath, that expects you to be more of an engineer, than an artist. same goes in different amounts, for all other packages i’ve ever used. i worked with max for some years now, but never learned to model anything like the stuff i’m able to do in Z (using it for 1 week), almost on the fly, and having fun, even. again, same goes for nendo and wings, for different purposes.
in the meantime i switched to softimage xsi, which is like maya’s evil twin, regarding the constant boasting about which was used for more hollywood movies and such, and well, if you have the background / experience, kathy is absolutely right, knowledge is transferrable, timelines and modeling tools all work alike, and of course there is a difference in what you can do with these packages, compared to Z, but the learning curve is very steep and most users have no choice, but to concentrate and focus on one aspect, like being a modeler, a texture painter, or an animator. which is quite boring, actually.
on the other hand, when it comes to animating, xsi (and all the others) are unleashing such a wealth of smart tools and raw power, that i dont even know where to begin counting. i mean, doing stop motion animation in Z sounds interesting and might even work, but imagine even doing a 30sec short by setting each frame by hand … wooo.
no timeline? no animation mixer? no dope sheet? no bones and weightmapping? no interpolation at all?
so, to bring these ramblings to an end, i really hope that Z will not be too much enriched in future releases, because then it would inevitably get as intimidating and complicated to use as all the rest, which would be a pity.
btw: i showed off some of Z’s abilities (with the limited skills i have) to my hard-boiled xs-proven co-workers, and - without exaggeration - their jaws did unisono hit the keyboard, when they saw me spinning and texturing a 60.000 poly mesh in realtime, and even shaded, with realtime fogging and materials applied, that woud take ages to even assemble, let alone mapping them
imho Zbrush simply rocks at the things it does, outperforms the major packages (if they even have any comparable features) and is a breeze to use, and it’s an excellent organic modeling and a marvelous texturing tool.
just hope that doesn’t change.
just remembered …
kathy, if you’re using gmax, this link might be useful:
http://gmax.digitalarenas.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewsdownload&sid=1
they got some very smart scripts, that let you import .ndo and .obj geometry
gmax is not so limited after all.
Don’t forget that Z is also a great inorganic modeling tool. All the primitives combined with their initialization settings and the maskable deformers combine to allow for some really impressive mechanical objects with minimal effort.
wow i didnt think this thread would the distance and since i started it i might as well give my two cents about using maya… as a hobbiest of art i can say that i use other programs to jump start my career in art… meaning i use other apps to show me the way…so to speak, ive never used 3d max or maya but from what i here there one the best programs to learn if your trying to get into multi media… One thing is for sure if i can gain experience and apply them to zbrush or photoshop then i havent lost anything… what might me easier to do in 3d max might be really hard for me to do in zbrush… besides im the kinda person who likes to learn all he can so that i can talk art programs to others and show them what ive learned… makes you look and feel smart…anyhoo… i will always be faithful to zbrush but i like the idea of learning new stuff, and i dont really care that its a educational setup program because i might just learn something that i can apply to other apps…thats my 4 cents about it…lol 4
Thanks el_pix!! Fabulous link. 