Well I have access to both lightwave (@work) and Max (@ an artists buddies house) and I hate both of them. The only I like about them is how they treat animation. Lets Face it..The modeler in lightwave Sucks!!! It is totally sucky and the user interface sucks. My boss bought a 10 tape series on training to use it and while I can now get around in it, I just dont care for it. There are other nicer 3d programs that I have had demo'd that I'd like but they are much more exspensive than either lightwave or max. The problem with light wave is the same problem after effects 3.1 had before it went to 4.0. Some idiotic engineer designed the interface. Things dont always work so intuitivly as they should. If you have to choose between lightwave and max tho look at your output preferences. For interactivity(ie games/vrml) max is much friendlier..there are plug-ins for tons of formats. Lightwave on the other hand has great output for video and film. The reason I choose Carrara was b/c of Carrara's integration with video products. It is comparable to lightwave in this regard, but is not quite so flexible. I feel tho that carrara will be able to compete with Lightwave once adobe (or whoever) can get a nice bones system hooked up. Of course by then I probably wont be able to afford it as Im sure that adobe will have Carrara's price equal to or greater than lightwaves by the end of the year :)