Ahh this old number.

I can honestly say having worked on a couple of films and a few tv series, that this is not true. Ive used polys and subds mainly with the odd nurb thrown in but there hasnt been a set rule in what Ive had to use. I would say most companies are poly based.

There was a time when the characters in the first shrek movie was stuff was done via nurbs patches but this was specific to Dreamworks's workflow, I remember that very cleary as we all started to learn more nurbs based organics LOL after we found found out, I guess we all assumed our next stop was a shrek movie.

But then with Subdivision surfaces stamping their authority in the industry later on, nurbs has become used less and less. Companies do still use them but not heavily like 'back in the day'. With Sds you get the best of Nurbs and also the robustness of polys and Uvs are better to understand in a layout thru the poly surface. Nurbs and their uvs can be tricky, so can stiching and clearing seams on a model.

At the end of the day if you can add some form of knowledge of nurbs to your modelling whether you use them or not, will only go in your favour if something arises when the need of a nurb may actually be easier than a poly.

The more you can learn will only stand you in goodstead in the long run, but also keep your ears to the ground with how the 'trends' in the industry are dictating what we need to know.


Edit: Organising your scene too is absolutely key to be a good modeler or what ever it is you want to do.

Sometimes riggers like to have objects named in a specific way as they script alot and this can save time down the road for them while doing their tests. I have come across modeler scenes which just have polySurface6000 or something, so by have good naming conventions and tidy scene files people will love you for it for sure.

hope some of this helps

cheers
Jay