Lightwave for everything. It's a very mature package Ver 7 just launched and I have to say you can tell it's a version 7. Very stable, very feature rich. As far as free modelers go I have to say I am very impressed with AMAPI 4.51, the free version. I just can't see shelling out even $100 for Rhino or other excellent packages if all you want to do is make models for Poser. If you want to render high end stuff again Lightwave. You get an unlimited number of render nodes and can even render over the internet (very dooable if you and fiends have cable or DSL) Max limits you to 3 nodes last I checked. Max doesn't even have a decent render engine of it's own. You really need to upgrade to the Mental Ray Plugin Renderer or Renderman (Pixar's renderer) Plugins? check out FLAY.com you can get a TON of free plugins for Lightwave. Not to mention that LW comes with features that others don't even offer. Not even Maya. A lot of people are even modeling in Maya and then rendering out in LW. I got the PPP so that I could render out my Poser animations in LW. I think it's a popular and well founded conception that if you want to develop games go with Max. If you want hi end special effects and photoreal renders go with LW. But what about the final product? How about Titanic? Good enough? Got a lot of Academy Awards for its special effects all done in LW.