Quote - It's too bad companies do not offer older versions of their software at a discounted price. I'd love to pickup Lightwave or Cinema4D. But don't want to fork out the big bucks $$$.

I don't know how you feel about leasing software, but Autodesk is now offering subscription based licensing of their line of products, similar to Adobe, with flexible licensing.  You could download and use Maya, Max, or XSI; full working versions, for around $195/mnth, or $1000 a year, something like that.

Also, there's the Maya LT (not PLE), which is basically "Maya Lite", which is only $50 per month, $500 per year, or buy it outright for $795.

I've heard Maya LT is actually pretty good, and considering Maya Unlimited is without a doubt the industry-standard package for high end CGFX, and used in just about every major film FX studio in the world, learning it on the lite version for $795 is a great opportunity I would think.

As for the OP, my vote also leans in favor of Wings3D, if you are an absolute beginner.  That's the software I learned on before moving up to 3dsmax, and I agree with the concensus that the techniques you develop in Wings3D, using box modeling, lays down a good foundation for futher learning of other techniques in the more advanced packages, if you decide to move on.

Consider this; If you decide to start out with a more complex package, that's fine, but there's a good chance your learning will be slow-going, and possibly handicapped by "sensory overload".  Meaning, there's so many technique variations, and options to choose from in some apps, and so many ways to do one thing, that you may have a slower time building a good, solid workflow to properly create geometry.

One guy in our class last year said it best.  He said, "the first tutorial I watched when I started using Wings was how to model a sword.  The first tutorial I watched when I started using Blender was how to configure Blender".

Whatever package you choose, good luck!  There's a lot of great ones out there.

 

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