I have to say that there's no one stop shopping store. Not even high end packages like SoftImage. Each program has its shining points. No program has a failure, merely extras that do a quick and dirty job that other specialty purchases shine at. Lets take a stroll down history lane. Metacreations kicked this whole thing off for us. Modeler ... InfiniD, Carrara, RayDream Scene Builder ... Bryce Model Painter ... Painter 3d People poser ... Poser Animation Builder ... Bryce, Poser, Dance Studio Web ... LogoMotion Postwork .. Painter Classic, Kai's Goo, Kai's Soap, Painter Classic and the list goes on. MetaC had a goldmine, but alas, it blew up. Corel bought Bryce, Painter, and Kai. CL bought Poser. Eovia bought Carrara and many products went to the wind. ViewPoint, the successor to MetaC took a very different direction. Had MetaC sayed together, we would hope for integration of all these fine products. However, we do benefit from the new talent. Bryce 5 is off to a good start. Poser 5 is downright mind boggling. Carrara 2 has radiosity and many other enhancements. Because Corel, CL, and Eovia etc, have not gotten together to realize the integration dream, a market is open for outsiders like vue and LW to perform some of the integration functions. If you look at what each of the purchasers have accomplished, my vote goes to CL for the most progress by a long shot. Who knows, maybe some day Conan and Cooper and Eovia will have lunch. And maybe not and each company will move away from the MetaC interface to more traditional ones. Time will tell. And that's the state of the nation.