Thank you both! Punk I know that great feeling you had with the cube I had a similar feeling the first time I figured out what the hell layers were in photoshop and when I did it made the way I was doing things before obsolete and I was able to do things beyond what i thought was possible. Then when I clicked on the layer properties and learned how to add stroke, change hue and color, add texture... it was incredible and at the same time I felt incredibly stupid at not knowing about it for the 2 years I was using Photoshop like drawng a masterpiece with a pen instead of a pencil... I was still incredibly successful which I been told was a testament to my eye for detaill, but I still felt stupid, lol. A friend of mine gave me something called 3DS Max but I have not installed it yet. First I will try the Blender and tinker with it.

So getting back to terms... when I see that thing that looks like a claymation doll I assume that is the 'modeling' aspect. And am I to understand that the rendering part is something the computer does more than something I do? Like I make a clay cube and the render applcation will allow me to input the parameters of what I want the cube to look like and it will do it? Am I wrong in thinking it works similar to the various 'filter' options in photoshop?

I guess with a little searching I could find some tutorials on how to use Blender as well right? Thanks again guys, and by all means keep chiming away I aim to absorb everything. Am I also right in assuming that the render if my analogy to a filter is correct, come with default renders but I can somehow upload more 'skins' or 'swatches' to use in the render process... or am i comeltely off, lol.

Oh and Danno I never though that some 2D things might not go over well in 3D, that bit of info may have just saved me a great deal of frustration if something comes out iffy... my very first object to try and model and render will be the Stargate itself... and then maybe.. boobies, lol.