I'm sorry that I consider Poser a "toy", no offense meant towards any devoted Poser users, I love Poser. Its just that If I were going to be taking a class animation in Maya. I would sure as hell want to look @ Maya PLE, regardless of the "steep learning curve" everyone associates with it. If I wanted to prep for a Maya animation course, I wouldn't think to get prepared for it by "playing" around in Poser. I'm sure if this kid is familiar with modeling in Rhino, that will ease some of the strain of Maya's "steep learning curve" so animation can more easily be picked up. I condiser Maya's interface alot more intuitively designed than 3DS Max 4.0 (we'll see about 5.0-I hear some good things about it)and thus easier to use. Plus how many job req's out there do you see with the requirement "must have at least three years experience using Poser"? I haven't seen one. While Poser is fun as a standalone, I only consider it a supplement to the core necessity of a Maya/3DS type package.