Personally? I think it comes down to the simple fact that good art can be made with Poser. And Vue. And Bryce. And PSP. You can not model with any of them, really. But you can get the above programs for $200, $200, $90, and $90. Less than the street cost of the latest version of Truespace, I believe. Considerably less than Cinema R8. We won't even bring up the costs of Max, Maya, Lightwave, Shade Pro, etc. With a little talent and willingness to learn and experiment, you can produce excellent work. Without spending half a car's tag price on -One- piece of software. When you actually get into it, Poser has a pretty powerful animation system. Vue can do excellent scenery. Bryce can, as well, if differently. PSP can handle many of the functions and plugins that Photoshop can. That has to kick the old ego... But yeah, you learn real quick that a tool is just that, and only as good as you are willing to learn how to make it (and =don't= get me started on the truly horrific 'pictures' that some of the elite post).