Can the software deliver what I need and can it handle the workload!? Thats what it all comes down to. When somebody come's in here and ask's should I get lightwave or carrara it comes down to the above question. Yes lightwave can do a lot that carrara cant, but carrara can do something lightwave cant. Carrara can make 3d accessible to newbies. And if your showing up to a forum and asking questions like that then lightwave probably isnt for you. Theres a reason one program is 2k+ and the other is 400. The simple fact is that when the video toaster came out, if I learned how to fully use lightwave then I would be a die hard lightwave fan now. The problem is I never took the time to take advantage of 3d until recently. Carrara is letting me create now. I sat down with lightwave and some vhs tutorials (which is way more help then I had with carrara) and I found the program to be totally cumbersome and counterproductive to the way I work. The last thing I want to do Is worry about animating null objects. Yes lightwave does some KICK @ss IK. I found using its bone system was very cool. It was nice the way it handled the camera's and lights. It was horrible when it came to applying properties to items like skins, reflection etc. And its modeling program was the biggest pile of poo I ever worked with. I mean in Carrara If I want to spell out my name I click on the text ICON and away I go...whats with lightwave making even text a pain in the butt? double sided polygons? Might be nice when I'm mr. 3d model man but for simple creations I dont want to mess around with that sort of thing. So what it comes down to is the above quote. And to me I just dont see lightwave meeting the above criteria to all people. If it is what you need you have looked on web sites and read reviews and you know that it's what you need. If your asking around here your PROBABLY (hey there's always exceptions) looking for something accessible now. Someone below posted that just b/c you know C++ doesnt make you a good programmer...it takes years to fully understand it. This is a great example: Carrara = Basic, lightwave = C. Yes technically lightwave is more powerful, but most people will do just fine with carrara and for many lightwave will just be a stumbling block for them. Man I have to quit posting right before bedtime..this is one crappy unspellchecked rant.... off to bed....