Quote - If you value your time, even as a hobbyist, then it may be worth the price to go to a "big app" if you can get away from the enormous waste of time it can be to try to integrate Poser, a higher-quality renderer, dynamic cloth, hair, modeling, texturing in 3d, yadda yadda (it has been for me).  It's pretty nice to have nearly-everything in one app instead of five different ones, for the single-person art department.

Exactly. Me, I'd be happy with four proggies: AC3D for modelling, export the .obj, integrate with the Poser stuff in Carrara, with D|S for light and occasional use otherwise. Maybe use GIMP for touch-ups and other stuff. It kinda simplifies things, and the whole wad would be dirt-cheap and nearly seamless when compared to the expense and array of what most folks use nowadays. /P