Another one for the experts

[V5Aussie]

First I'd like to say thanks again to everyone who replied to my last post, all the input really helps. I've got the trial version of Maya 8.5 right now, and I was wondering if it can export a polygon/nurb that can be used in Adobe After Effects as a three-dimensional object, or do I have to do all the animation in Maya itself?

[Soquili]

I haven't used the Maya trial since version 5.0 which only allowed exporting to a Maya propriatory file format.

Since Alias (former makers of Maya) was bought by Autodesk, I'm not sure what file formats are supported in Maya 8.5 personal learning edition.

[emel]

V5Aussie,

AE is a compositing program, so you must take the animation there to be used.
You can export the animation as a TGA or TIFF sequence with alpha-channel allowing you to isolate the object and therefore superimpose it against any backgroung or layer within AE.
You can also export the movie as is and isolate the background (preferably using a solid color like blue, green or red in the background when rendering in Maya or any other program - consider the background you're going to apply to) trough the color keying command (effects).

AE is not a 3D program. It is a compositing program where you can join image,video, and even *.ai or *.eps files but not 3D. So keep this in mind.
Basically AE is a 2D layer program with some "3D effects" that can be very ilusive but still are 2D.
It's a wonderfull program for "putting things together", it's like the Photoshop for video (image in motion), but...you must feed it with the video.
I hope this to be helpfull.

Emanuel