Bill, Before you BUY you can try some of the Demoware out there... Rhino3d has fully functional demoware (and you can do MTs on it pretty easily). It's main drawback is that you'll have to buy a separate rendering Engine like Bryce or something... You can use BRMT to render (Blue Moon Rendering Tools), which does have a high learning curve as it's a text based interface but does Renderman format (like about 70% of Hollywood uses). Rhino has about the flattest learning curve for modelling... (in my experience). http://www.rhino3d.com Organica is also a neat little modeller. I remember there was some excitement about it a while back. http://www.coolfun.com Blender is freeware. Saw it demoed at SIGGRAPH. It also comes with a RADIOSITY Rendering Engine which you must buy to get the key to use it... but it's pretty cheap. http://www.blender.nl