Maya replaced PowerAnimator as South Park’s animation software beginning with season five.
Early South Park production used scanned and redrawn cardboard-style artwork imported into PowerAnimator. The software ran on Silicon Graphics workstations, which were connected to a render farm for processing the show’s shots. Beginning with the fifth season, the animators switched to Maya, the 3D computer-animation software associated with Autodesk.
The change did not mean South Park abandoned its deliberately simple visual identity. The show continued to use cutout-like characters and intentionally jerky movement, preserving the handmade aesthetic while relying on a different digital production tool. Maya became part of the technical pipeline behind that distinctive look.
Blender is a common modern alternative in animation discussions, but it was not the software identified in South Park’s production history. Toonz and Flash likewise do not fit the documented transition. PowerAnimator is the older software, while Maya is the replacement tied specifically to season five.