After playing around with C4D, Lightwave and Maya, I settled for Maya 4.5 complete. I enjoy the workflow and the interface is fast to navigate once you learn a few hotkeys. Cinema 4D is good but Maya is better. But I guess it all depends on what features one is looking for. I am relatively new to 3D and am putting in 10 hours a day to learning Maya. I am keeping the next 6 months totally to studying, eating, sleeping. studying....