What do YOU use for animation?

CrashMagnum

I'm not trying to make a Maya vs Max vs Blender thread for the millionth time, I swear.

I'm working on a UDK based project and was wondering if you have suggestions/ experience on which program you find plays well with UDK the most. This is my first time doing character animation for games and decided to try out the CAT system in Max. I seem to be running into all sorts of issues I haven't encountered with non-game animation that I've done in Maya. It was a stupid decisions to go in blind to a new system I'm unfamiliar with and expect it to work the first time but I'm starting to feel that it's shortcomings outweigh the initial time saved.

Have you guys had good/ bad experience with CAT?
Should I stick to CAT or go the 'regular' route of rigging/ animating?
Any tips/ tricks you guys suggest I keep in mind when working with animations for games in general?

I've watched a ton of tuts at this point and feel stuck at what I should do at this point.
I should note that I've worked with shader, particles, and static meshes so far in UDK with little to no issues so I'm aware of the import process to a degree.

Sorry if this is a really stupid sounding question, I just want to see what your guys experience is. Thanks ahead of time!

AlexCatMasterSupreme

I use ur mum hurr durr. Just kidding. I personally use Maya but mostly for motion graphics. From what I have heard Maya is the standard for animating. In my opinion (for what I do) it's as good as max to some degree.
They both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Mark Dygert

I use max, I stay away from CAT and stick to biped and rigs that I've created myself. I've hit too many bugs with CAT and had to do some very crazy work arounds to get CAT rigs working. Autodesk seems to be working on CAT over the last few releases and hopefully they are still working on it, so it might be better in a release or two but for now I've decided to just leave it alone and stick to what works well, biped and what I make and maintain on my own.

CrashMagnum

Thanks for the responses.
As you pointed out Alex, Maya and Max are both great and have their strengths and weaknesses.

@Mark
CAT feels like its almost good. Its not there yet but there are a handful of kinks they could work out and make it usable.

I was surprised at how well it procedurally made a decent walk/ run cycle. It's too bad thats about all its good for at this point.

The reason I didn't just use the biped in this case was that I'm trying to rig a odd-shaped creature. This is also a first for me.