"Grungy, clunky near-tech sci-fi look"...riiiiiight. :) Well, as my better half has stated, I use the program I use because I am most comfortable with it also, that program being Rhinoceros 3D. However, I've been slowly teaching myself Lightwave and I plan to eventually teach myself Softimage XSI. I tried learning Maya but found it wasn't something I could get into. I am first and foremost a character modeler, and while not the greatest in the world, I do have my moments. The reason I chose Rhino was becuase at the time I started modeling my own stuff, Rhino was in Beta and available for free. NURBs modeling was the new thing back then and nothing beats Rhino for easily creating NURBs surfaces. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have purchased Rhino though...for porps, cars, and ships, NURBs are great but when it comes to characters these days, NURBs are a dying breed. Since I want to do this for a living, I've found myself forced to learn polygon modeling. So far, Max and Lightwave have proven the easiest programs for me to get into for polygon work but I don't much care for Max and I've been a fan of Lightwave since its Amiga days. I'd like to put together my own demo reel but I have neither the resources nor the training for such a thing. I'm now looking to take my frist art class ever...and it's going to be a modeling class. I just have to pick a school. Next?