Touted as "the premier 3-D application for high-end visual graphics",

Touted as "the premier 3-D application for high-end visual graphics",
Maya combines modeling and rendering tools; character and object
animation; a customizable, scriptable interface; and a powerful
production workflow, in one impressive application. Skilled teams of
animators have used it to create effects for films such as Pearl
Harbor, The Perfect Storm, and Shrek, and it has made many TV shows
and video games come to life. Although there are 3-D applications that
outperform some of Maya's individual features, none provides such a
comprehensive software package.

Modeling is one of Maya's strong suits. The program performs modeling
of 3-D wire-frame objects with both polygonal geometry, well-suited to
hard mechanical and architectural surfaces, and NURBS (non-uniform
rational b-splines), which are ideal for modeling organic surfaces.
Maya lets you build a convincing representation of nearly any object,
and it deftly converts organic forms built with NURBS into polygonal
objects.

Maya adapts equally well to animating spaceships, the complex squash
and stretch of characters, and natural phenomena such as fire and
rain. Key to its prowess is the ability to make animation object-
oriented: the action of one object can drive the action of any other.
For example, you can create a Set-Driven Key that connects the speed
of a locomotive to the turning of its wheels, so the two will always
be appropriately in sync.

Maya combines the object-oriented approach, borrowed from computer
languages, with a comprehensive set of inverse and forward kinematics,
deformations, and timing controls. Inverse kinematics make it easy to
define how a character walks, while deformations can control the bulge
and jiggle of muscles under its skin.

Dynamics, the animation of the effects of physics, is another
testament to Maya's depth. A compendium of particle effects and
simulation tools allow you to create realistic smoke, fire, vortices,
and other spectacles of nature, while body dynamics simulate springs
and collisions to make objects react and bounce as they do in life.

Reviews:
[Macworld article about v3.5.0][1]
[Macworld article v3.5.1][2]

The requirements for running Maya are:

* Mac OS X 10.0.4 (4Q12 or later)
* G4 chipset (450, 500, 533, 633, 733, etc.)
* A minimum of 512Mb of RAM
* One or two processors (dual processor configurations are
supported,
although batch rendering is not multi-threaded in this release)

* ATI Rage 128 graphics card or ATI Radeon graphics card
* Mac OS Extended-formatted hard drive
* Three button mouse
* Display set to millions of colors

DISQUALIFIED HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE
Maya has known issues with specific hardware and software. For
recommended system configurations, refer to
[www.aliaswavefront.com/qual_charts][3].

* Maya cannot be installed and run from a UFS-formatted volume.
However
you can use a UFS-formatted drive for storing data files

1st download is the Maya Complete 3.5 Application CD in bin/cue
format.
2nd download is the Maya Complete 3.5 Learning CD in bin/cue format.
3rd download is the Maya Complete 3.5 Application CD in VirtualCD
Imager format (mount the image with VirtualCD Imager).

There was once an updater to v3.5.1 on the Alias|Wavefront homepage
for compatibility with Mac OS X 10.1.
If you have it, please upload it to this page!

Compatibility
Architecture: PPC

v3.5:
Mac OS X 10.0.4 (will not run properly on Mac OS X 10.1 and later)
ATI Rage 128 or ATI Radeon graphics card
(see [Qualification of Maya 3.5 for Mac OS X][4])

v3.5.1:
Mac OS X 10.0.4 and 10.1 (will not run properly on Mac OS X 10.2 and
later)
ATI Rage 128, ATI Radeon, ATI Radeon 8500, Nvidia GeForce 2 MX, Nvidia
GeForce 3 or Nvidia GeForce 4 MX graphics card
(see [Qualification of Maya 3.5.1 for Mac OS X][5])

Three button mouse required.

[1]: http://www.macworld.com/article/1001379/maya.html
[2]: http://www.macworld.com/article/1020475/maya.html
[3]: http://www.aliaswavefront.com/qual_charts (www.aliaswavefront.com/qual_charts)
[4]: http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/qualcharts/maya_35_osx.html
[5]: http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/qualcharts/maya_351_osx.html