First of all let me way that willf has hit the nail on the head. Like so many other software experiences I've had, usually the more powerful the software package, the more complicated the interface. It's kind of a rule that can't be broken for lots of real reasons. As an example, there are about seven gazillion shadow options in lightwave. It will cast a shadow but not for this light setup and it won't catch a shadow from any other objects except for these special ones in combination with that special light and on and on and on and on. In the end you can do a lot more specific things and get a graphic product that can be very well defined for its application. Some packages are haus enough to make heavy hitting movies with (maya/lightwave as an example). Some packages are good modelers and not good renderers, etc. So, Yes, several of the more expensive apps are more powerful than C but in my personal opinion, I don't know that they're worth the pain and dough to get many of the minuscule atomic level details. For final products that are 2d, C is getting to be on par with a lot of the heavier hitting packages but there are definite things that are missing before it gets there. As an animation package (especially when organics are involved), there's significant room left to go. C is missing several things which are becoming sort of standard and sort of required if it's going to stay competitive like bones or radiosity. Lots of cheap/shareware/freeware codes do these two things (blender as an example), but the interface for these codes can be aggravating and cumbersome and limited. Cheaper codes have their own uses just like C has its own uses and they should be used for what they do best. In the end, I think C is just about the best darned overall package that's available for the $. It's reasonably rounded out and the interface doesn't have a steep learning curve. If any of the noise we are hearing out of Eovia is true, it's only going to get better. In the end, go look in the galleries to see if it can really do what you want it to do. That's the real test of a package. -Kix

-Kix