well ur arguments on the pros and cons of these various SW has been very illuminating...appreciate all that...a couple of queries however....it seems after all the rhinos' and the likes it finally comes to a MAX or Maya to get the fully rendered and touched-upon chararcter model...since MAX offers various methods of modelling, is one better off getting started with it? where exactly does the difference b/w Poser and MAX lie? Also what i would like to understand is why do modellers' want to start with basic shapes and finally coming upon the final body via patch-modelling or whatever...i say this in the light of the fact that Avatar Studio offers ready made models that can be manipulated in several ways all the way from the shape of the nose to the waist to eye width etc etc...how different can a 36-24-36 figure be?...am i missing a point here?...advise pls.