I've been working in Poser 4 w/ Pro Pac and a program called Carrara now for about three years. Think I have a pretty good grasp of hos it all works... Just started learning MAYA about 6 months ago. The nice thing is that the principles of 3D animation are pretty much universal. What you learn in Carrara (low end 'Maya' type program) transfers over to MAYA. True, you need to learn the interfaces of the various programs, but it's definately not starting from scratch. I'd recommend dedicating your time to one of the higher end programs if you're sure you want to master 3D animation. Poser and Carrara are both good programs (Bryce as well), but if you really want to have full access I'd go for MAYA or 3D Studio Max or Cinema 4D. Unfortunately I don't have time to explain all the details... And I haven't worked in enough different progams to make good comparisons, so...