PowerAnimator
PowerAnimator and Animator, also referred to simply as "Alias", the precursor to what is now Maya and StudioTools, was a highly integrated industrial 3D modeling, animation, and visual effects suite. It had a long track record, starting with Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991 and ending in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999. PowerAnimator ran natively on MIPS-based SGI IRIX and IBM AIX systems.
The software
The software itself featured one of the most complex user interfaces ever created, which allowed for an incredible amount of control over scene parameters, but made many tasks, such as animation, cumbersome and counterintuitive. It was expensive as well, apart from the enormous cost of SGI systems at the time. The standalone software retailed for $7,500, and was also sold with other modules, with a PowerPack containing all modules for US$30,000.
Alias PowerAnimator 9.0 documentation
Animating in Alias 9.0 (436 pages) - Provides information to help you create basic animations, build skeletons, bring creatures to life using Inverse Kinematics, produce particles and special effects, and deform time using time warps.