Anyone know what software is used create: 1) Game Trailers (e.g. gears of war 2 rendezvous trailer) 2) FMVs/cut-scenes (e.g. warcraft 3, halo cut-scenes, mechwarrior 3 intro) any help much appreciated thanks Rego

Many are possible:

(for 3d-trailers and stuff)
* Inhouse software
* Pumped up ingame renditions
* Blender w/ e.g. Lux-Render or Yaf-Ray (Blender is a bit hard to learn, but it's free)
* Maya (expensive)
* 3D Studio MAX (expensive)
* Bryce (cheaper in price than the others)
* Vue (costs some bucks) (not sure about Vue actually, if it is good at animating things)
* more ...

Everything is allowed :)

awesome thanks!

i did some googling and i think motionbuilder is supposed to be good too (possibly with Maya - not sure)

the good thing is Autodesk offer maya and motionbuilder free trials (with watermarks on the rendered images)

cheers
Rego