Its all swings and roundabouts. Maya and Houdini are used a hell of alot for particle sims. Softimage is pretty much up there when it comes to animation. Max as we know is the one mainly used for gaming development but all software is integrated to fit the artists if need be , people can make transitions from one piece of kit to the next these days without too much fuss as everything is getting more node based, even Lightwave is heading down that route.

Cheers
Jay