and I ahve tried lightwave, its even more complex then maya. :o
Have installed XSI , at least its installation looks better then max and maya lols 
Lemo I can understand the story part, but soemtimes espeacilly for ads you have to use, lightning effects and smokes and explosions⊠so I think I have to have atleast one of posteffect softwares ??
dont you think so ?
Lemmo, I misjudged you, my apolagies. 
I bought LW8, got the LW9 upgrade for free, and the point upgrades will be free for 9 owners too. Have to pay a little bit to get LW10 I expect; they canât work for free at Newtek. :lol:
As for difficulty: I think all these 3D programs have a learning curve. I choose LW for its (then) cheap price and its active and helpfull community (same reasons I bought Zbrush too). Plus: they had a deal where you got Vue5 infinite for free if you bought LW, which wasnât to be sneezed at. I learned LW from the diverse tutorials found on the internet, and I expect you can do that with XSI as well.
XSI is new, looks good and has a cheap entrylevel. I do think they should give a refund for upgraders though.
As for explosions and smokes: I make my own in LW, though it takes some time. I guess you can do those things in every 3D program. Post works quicker offcourse.
Lightning, smoke⊠almost always looks the best with a post program. But itâs hard to make it look integrated. I am not a specialist in that. Tried a few things but did not excel in it. For stills I swear on Photoshop. For animations⊠someone else has to make a good solid recommendation. I did particle stuff in XSI and was more than happy. Others say that other progs can do more realistic stuff. But often⊠my âstuffâ is not realistic and the effects at hand are more than perfect. It all comes back to a specific use and a project. One has to look at all sorts of trial versionsâŠ
And yes, as with all the progs, there are plenty of tutorials for LW,XSI,Max,Maya for free on the web. Takes a bit research but itâs not to hard.
Good luck getting your toolkit together. And take what you like and what you think will work for you. Advice is always very much tainted by a narrow view on a selection of the mad variety out there.
Lemo
you should try it out
I am sure you will be amazedâŠjust as I am when the developer of this plug-in, a dear friend of mine, shows me how much better his - free stuff - is working than expensive software.