Well 3ds Max is a powerful animator and 3d creator along with everything else and that is only $600...for the $350 extra from Poser I would think its worth it. Seeing that you can actually create models in Poser only download them and import them, I dont see why anyone would bother. I can see if you are new to the 3d world, like me, it is an easy program to get into although its not very powerful for those people who want to do professional renders.