Hope this helps !
I use Max to create the scene. export it in RPF seq's, so others may use it. For instance a cube is great but what if you want more !.
I just finished a job where the client wanted a hallway with 6 floating picture frames along the lenght of the hallway. But he cant use max and I dont have the time to render it once a week for him.. So he loads the anim in combustion then chandes each pic frame with his own video footage and thatsd it !