I can afford Maya, and I STILL use LightWave[6]! Why do I like Lightwave so much? Well, boys and girls... Whenever I hang up the phone with the Techs at NewTek, all my problems are solved. Sometimes the tools are hard to figure out, but when you READ THE MANUAL, it all makes sense! I'm having trouble exporting Bryce files to L[6] the way I could with L[5.6], but thats the only problem I have! If you have no life outside graphics, and money is no object- buy both! Nothing says "Impresive... Most Impressive" like a Sith Lord fighting with his kid, or a FAT resume` with more then one software packages!