I started with Bryce 3. It took years before I went to freeware modelers, then to Poser, then to higher end modelers. Bryce is a FANTASTIC way to start CG. The thing with Bryce is you can start out making nice pics right away with little to no knowledge, and after many years, you will find new techiques and more wonderful things to do with the program. Its a joy for beginners and a challenge for the old pros. In the last year, there have been a lot of interesting posts in this forum such as the radiosity and hdri techniques as well as the building of models using primitives with alpha map texturing. Oddly enough, all this 'new' technique stuff was doable in Bryce 3 and below. I chose Bryce as my first 3d app because after searching the net, Bryce had the best support in web sit tutorials, etc. In fact, it had a cult like following that I found to be WAY more developed than any other 3d app. And I'm hoping that at some time in the future, there will be interest in the fractal formulas that are adjustable in the material lab (in the deeper sections that are not well documented except maybe for Susan Kitchen's book). There's a heck of a lot you can do with Bryce and even though I have Poser 5 and Electric Image Universe, I still use Bryce to compose a still scene and render. The B5 render options are just fantastic.