Thanks for all the great advice! Cybermonk, thank you for the suggeestions - I have played around with Wings some, mostly just following a tut on nano particles, had a blast with it - and it is very easy to understand. I will probably continue to play with it a bit, it's ease of use is a big plus. But as Brian mentioned, I am looking for the whole package (render and all) so I'm not sure I want to invest a lot of time into Wings, especially if the blender learning curve is pretty fast. Thanks for the info on that Vesper. Unusual I can handle, as long as it's fairly quick to learn. And yes, Vesper, I do believe getting the manual is a good idea once I know I will be continuing. I fully believe in supporting any companies efforts to offer good stable and free software. It is amazing these days to find that people like that still exist! Brian, good advice about learning one bit at a time - I do want to do it all, but the main thing is to take is slow and understand one part before working on the rest. Great advice all of you! I may not start this immediately as I have osme other projects to finish up, but I imagine I will be seening you areound these forums. Thanks for helping! judee