ScottA said: "MAYA and MAX are the way to go if you want to do it once." Very true, heheh I learnt this the hard way. But there are industry professionals who use Lightwave. Jobs sometimes partly depend on luck and timing. I would not call it a hobbyist program cos it's semi-mainstream. milbogo: for what you want to do, i think Poser would pretty much cover most of it :)