I personally would suggest Cinema 4D XL... after trying most of the others, Cinema was the first one that actually seemed intuitive to me. That's the problem with asking for suggestions; everyone is different, and has different ideas of what a 3D program should be and how it should function. While one person says Lightwave is easy to learn and makes sense to him, another may think it's unusable. Try the demos that are out there (Cinema 4D is at www.maxon.net), and decide what works for you. Whichever you choose, once you concentrate on that one program and learn it, you'll probably be happy with it (and tell others that it's the ONLY way to go)!

Annie