As a computer games animator with 15 years experience... I'll tell you to film it. Learning the software at the same time that you are using it, under a deadlined project, is like making a game while they are still building the engine. Not fun. Not productive. 3D software is incredibly complicated to master, and unless you have already worked with 3D graphics, you will spend more time trying to put clothes on your model and lights set up and a shadow in the proper place than you'd believe possible... all this before you even start animating. Once you add a second person to the scene, it gets even worse. These are meshes. Real people don't stick their hair through their bodies or their hands through their comrades. With film and real people you already know that their clothes will stay on and drape naturally if they should sit down. You know that the sun will shine and cast a shadow. You know that if the wind is blowing, then hair and clothes will billow. If you aren't worried about the mechanics of posing them, they might even act naturally. You can concentrate upon the story. That IS what a movie is all about. The story. Not the whiz-bang effects. Not the fancy-pants CGI work. The story. Since you are taking a media class, you have probably already been taught about script-writing and story-boarding. Doing good preparation will save time later. You will waste less film and have more to show for it. Instead of spending weeks learning software that you might never use again, polish up the story and make it interesting. If you had a semester, I'd give different advice... but with only a month? Go with the camera! Carolly