I would say that compared to other 3D software companies, Eovia is probably on the small to medium end of the mid range in size. They have been around long enough that they seem fairly stable (if any software company other than Microsoft can be called stable). I have found that smaller companies, such a Eovia, that are actively seeking to improve their product often provide the best value for your dollar.

CS4 may not have all the "features" the the big names do, but they also don't have the marketing and sales staff overhead that the big names do (which the user pays for). The full version improvements (i.e. V2 to V3, V3 to V4) to Carrara have been very impresive, and now Carrara is on the heels of the "Pro" applications. The render engine is already comparable with the Pro applications. The shaders in CS4 are very flexible and powerfull, and IMHO hold there own compared to C4D and Lightwave (need to implement SS to keep up with the others). The spline modeler in CS is very powerful and flexible. There has also been increased plugin development since CS4 came out, and the plugins are very affordable.

The areas that need improvement are vertex modeling (althought CS4 Pro does ship with Amapi Designer, which fills in gaps in the CS4 modeler, and the new Hexagon looks like it might be the answer to fast, powerful, easy to use modeling for CS), animation needs some more work flow improvement and minor tweaks (CS4 made big strides in this area), and improved particles and physics would be a big plus. I'd like to see native cloth simulation capabilities within CS, but with Poser 5 (soon Poser6?) support through Transposer, you can get cloth simulations into CS4.

Bottom line though, if CS4 "feels" right (intuitive?), and seems to work the way you think, then it will be a good purchase. To me, that is the most important consideration when purchasing 3D software. If it does't fit your thought processes, you'll be fighting it every time you use it.

Good Luck!

__________________________________________________________

My Rendo Gallery ........ My DAZ3D Gallery ........... My DA Gallery ......