Hey....I have 3d Studio Max 5.0 and soon to have Maya. My mom went to graphic art school and from what I understand MaYa is an 8,000 dollar program and 10 times better than the 3,500 dollar 3d Studio Max...On the other hand Im not sure what version anyone else in here uses but I haven't used the latest Max so I could be wrong. Is anyone willing to send me a copy of Maya if they have it and they dont like it?? Feel free to send me an email @ dudeigotadell@earthlink.net....By the way I've heard it takes one hell of a processor to render in Maya does anyone know?? Im running a 2004 Dell XPS (actually a state of the art gamming comp.) thanks.......