Hey, just thought I would post this and let ya all know about aliaswavefronts big ta doo. Next month Aliaswavefront is releasing a learners edition of maya free to download or on cd for $5. It includes all the tools of maya complete. Whats the downside? Watermarks on all of your renderings, and weird ass formats that can't be used by other software, and lastly you can't use any third party plugins with it...and oo yeah, 1 year subscription, but renewable. But then again beggars can't be choosers!

i am expecting sevral others to follow souit now talked to some peopl at some big studios that say this i s just the first step into all apps going to free programs and charging for training etc this has been an idea tosssed around for a while now youll get the base program for free but new tools and plugins will be sold to you once you have it along with training moore money is made from these and they belive that more people would pay in situations like this

I sure there is also a monopolous tactic to is all as well. I downloaded the Maya Demo. Can't say I like it much, however 30 days is not near long enough to really get a feel for a program with that many options.