Special effects in 3D animated movies

Want to know how special effects are made in 3D animated movies and what packages are used. I want to know how effects are made because I hope to create an animation in 3D that feature special effects using packages like Maya so I would need to understand how they use 3D and maybe how it can be done in Maya as a 3D specialising package. I would like to find out how to create explosion or sometime in the future when I have more of an understanding with Maya, I want to learn so I can practice now. Over all I just really want to know about special effect to help boost my skills in animation 3D animating and hope to learn some effects in the future.

    

I watched a video on effect to do with Maya, reason being is because I want to understand Maya a bit more and the type of effects that can be used with in the package, i want to make an attempt on creating an  animation with in this package. Watching this has made understand a bit about Maya's effects but I would not see my self using my for professional work with in my career because 3D is not a format I want to work with, I prefer both 2D and traditional but I am still wanting to experiment with effects in this package. I am been learning how to create explosions and action effects with in this package which i have now been practising my self.