3DS going downhill? I seriously beg to differ, my friend. Take one quick look through the 3DS galleries here at Renderosity and you will consistently find the BEST 3D artwork available... Also, 3DS ships with mental ray just like Maya does. In my experience, 45% of the available job market goes to 3DS, 45% to Maya/Alias, and the remaining 10% goes to Photoshop/After Effects/Combustion. So far, Bryce has just held me back on the job market. It's a toy to any professional. But that's just from a few years of scanning through Animation World and the Web for jobs. I tried 3DS, and Lightwave, and in the end I got further in Maya than I ever could in either, the first time I used it. But to each his own! Now back to how much Metaballs RULE!