Crowd for maya
 

Can we achive animating crowd in Maya or can anyone recommend any other software which is cost effective

if you mean like a crowd of people, try checking out 3dtotal - i'm sure i saw a couple of tutorials on there for creating crowds....

Tryout crowdbuilder(I think thats what its called.) Its a plugin for making - well, crowds.

These should help and all are free :)

crowd maker:
http://web.tiscali.it/maya_tutorial/

brainbugz:
http://www.kolve.com/mp_brainbugz/brainbugz.htm

and my weak unfinished emulation at trying to do similar things as the systems above using craig reynolds 'boids' techniques:
http://www.flash-fx.net/3D/tools/bFlocking/

Si