I have maya 6.5 and its alright. I think cinema 4d is better and same goes for 3dmax. Cool 3d is good for things for your sigs and avas ^_^
3ds max is the greatest [edit] hey if you are going to buy a 3d modeling program , you will need to try them out for a few days then after you are done choose the one that you are confortable with and stick with it.
Hmmm I read on pixars site that they use marionettes or something like that....... maybe that was for animation I'm not sure
Its been already said but it depends on what you want to do with it. If you want to aim for videos and movie type of stuff go with Maya. If you want to aim for game modeling go with 3ds Max but if you want to work in it for fun I say go with Cinema4D or Lightwave. The higher the quality of the program the harder it is to learn.