Well now I'm quoting myself and running XSI trial. Really ain't nothing much than animation I want to do so I'll consider going someway to have better tools that are not annoyingly broken.Messiah animate is the other possibility for me and that would leave me rendering in LW. I'm still waiting my books from Timothy Albee and Jonny Gorden ordered from amazon. Maybe they will change my mind.

Edited typing error, Noratio

My partner and I work in Lightwave, Maya, Softimage/XSI, and Max for deliverables to clients. To create these deliverables, we use Modo, Bodypaint, and Messiah, as well as Realflow where needed. We use Polytrans by Okino to shift back and forth between platforms as needed.

Is that alot of money, yep. Can my clients tell the difference which package was used, 99 times out of a 100 no. Personally, what we've found is that the artist uses the tools, not the other way around. I like LW, but use Modo alot for modeling. If we have to do character animation, we generally don't use LW alone. My partner is the expert in Max, but uses Softimage as well. I like LW and Maya.

We haven't found any one of these tools fits every need that we have, hence our need to buy other tools to finish the job.

I think each package has it's strengths and all have weaknesses. But to a large extent, whether they are strengths or weaknesses come down to the artist using them.

Hoop

Takes commitment what ever way we go. Turning heavy stones all days makes a man stonger, right? Noo not really, not in best means.

Why I posted looking other ways was just that after I said why not Motion Builder or Messiah wouldn't be fair to turn xsi right after without posting.

Woa... think i missed this thread... Hmm,, XSI,, think its too much for me. There is also Maya, EAIS, and other load of software,, if you really want to go for it :p . But then again these are all tools. But with set driven keys and other nice animation tools it does make life easier.:D... Thinking of it,,, waiting for what maya 6.5 has in store...

Well personally this is what i am doing... collecting DVDs.. Ya right even though its maya stuff and i use lightwave... i still want to see the technique. And not to mention i might hop over in the future,,, since its industry standard and all.

Multi app is a good thing... when you have resources to help you.. So find a studio or someone who has finished using their gnomon dvds,, and get it off them cheap... Hehe:D