I've tested out 3DS Max 4, Rhino 1.1, 2.0 extensively, and more recently have taken a dive into Maya 4.5 Rhino - Well, Teyon pretty much covered most of it. The thing I love about Rhino is that it is so direct; what you see is what you get, no tricks or oddities that the user has to work around or figure out. The learning curve is like taking a stroll in the park compared to some of the others. In the field of organics however I'm a firm believer in a poly modeler. Rhino does wonderful at things like organic car bodies and the like, however if you want richly detailed complex characters (Teyon excluded ;P) (ex: human facial features) then I believe another poly modeler is the way to go. Rhino doesn't have any real poly modeling tools, however it wasn't built as a poly modeler. For NURBS it's hard to beat. I highly reccomend rhino to anyone. 3DS Max - I'll have to be up front an honest, I really didn't get the chance to use max long enough to get a firm standing in my opinion of it. The general interfase I didn't care for much, in that everything was so burried, it takes more mouse clicks to get at stuff vs. other apps on the market today. I just kind of felt that it was "clunky" in a sense. Max is capable of great things (look at blizzard) and I don't doubt its power, but it just didn't seem intuitive enough for me. Maya - I'm very new to Maya, so again I can't vouch for all things Maya. The interfase is very fluid considering the number of tools that it must cover. Very similar to 3DS Max, but more fluid IMO. The tools are pretty well organised for the most part. The controls for moving around a viewport are second to none, you pick them up pretty fast. Maya's poly tools are very powerful, as well as its patch/Nurbs, and sub d's. I find it a faster program to pick up and use for a newer user vs Max. Maya's modeling tools, though not respected as the very best in the industry, are powerful indeed, enough to let you focus more on your creation, rather than having to d**k around in the program and solve problems that the program should worry about, and not the end user. I've talked to many users, and none of them have come across a project that couldn't be done in Maya. MEL is very powerful, if you find that a tool doesn't exist that you need...make it exist! Pick your tools well, you'll end up at the same place in the end...its just a matter of how well you travel ;) -Modulok-