Here's what I posted for a similar question a few weeks back about what programs are used for what purposes. Hopefully this might help answer some of your questions: Manipulating Human/animal figures: Poser. Image editing: Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop. Landscape/Scene building: Bryce, Vue d'Esprit, World Builder, TrueSpace, 3D Studio Max, Maya, Lightwave. (Poser can accept backgrounds, but it is easier to build it in another program, in my opinion.) Modelling: Rhino 3D, Amorphium, Strata3D, TrueSpace, 3D Studio Max, Maya, Lightwave. Supports animation: Poser, Bryce, Vue, World Builder, Strata3D(?), TrueSpace, 3DStudio Max, Maya. Cross-platform animation: Poser - Vue (may require 3d party software), Poser-Bryce (requires 3d party software), Poser-3D Studio Max (requires 3d party software), Poser-Lightwave (requires 3d party software). Many of the pictures that are in the Poser forum use Poser characters but are actually rendered in a different program. Poser is the most viewed gallery, so people post their pictures there even if that technically isn't the program that rendered the picture. Every few months, we get a debate on exactly how to determine which gallery a picture should be posted, but we're usually pretty laid back about it.