The thing is that for any serious 3d work on all levels Max and Lightwave are there for us. They are affordable for small productions. Independent 3d artist have accomplished great things with these apps.
Blender does not function the same on every level as these apps right now. It’s reasonable to check them out if you really want to expand your 3d skills and markets.
Oh no. Don’t say that. I like Lightwave they have a great team of developers and end users.
Maya is NOT $3000! It’s U.S. $6999 Euro €7349 GBP£4899 Yen ¥930,000
and houdini, lightwave, cinema4d and xsi still does not compare to Max. I’m not saying the others aren’t powerful and worth checking into but the facts are the facts. Both max and Maya have the content to prove it’s power. I know and use both very well. Maya’s workflow maybe alittle better than max some may argue but the learning curve is not worth it for an independant content developer. 
Actually, you’re both right. There are two versions of Maya - Unlimited which costs U.S.$6999, and complete which costs only U.S.$1999.
Just like any other 3D app. Max is not special in that regard, I promise you.
Overpriced… underpriced…
I think of it this way: If you’re going to spend $3000 on a program, then you better learn to use 100% of it.
But how many people know how to use every single feature of any 3D software? Some people like modeling with NURBS, other with polygons; some love to UV their models, others hate it ; some animate, some do not, etc…
If people are proud to spend that kind of money just to say that they have the latest version of whatever program, but only use half of it… well, that’s just a waste of money.
this thread has excalated too far %| maybe after the 2 page we can stop, its turning into another flame :-?
This is only true if your interested in being a hobbyist I think.
Lets say you have a job to do that and your getting paid $15,000 for it.
Now lets say you have licenses for application X and Y, and you know that to do the job would take 2 weeks in either of those apps. Lets say that you also know that by spending 3k for a license of application Z you can cut the time you spend on the job by half or more. All things considered, if you decide to buy a license for application Z it would mean your actaully making MORE money for the amount of time spent. It dosnt matter if you only learn 1% of the functionality availible in application Z, and in fact you could put it away and never touch it again; you would still come out ahead financically.
I think this is why you hear ‘pros’ on message boards like CGtalk repeat over and over ‘most software pays for itself with the first job completed.’
Cheers,
Xarf
True, and frankly the original poster doesn’t care anymore. He probably said screw lightwave and 3ds max! and went on to use zbrush :D. People get so defensive when a bad comment is aimed at their software of comfort. Topics like “this vs that” separates the community on the whole. I remember when I started programming and asked the question: DirectX or OpenGL? 15 pages of flames later and still no resolution. Someone should lock this thread before it turns into a real flame with swearing and name calling 
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hm… i don’t see a flame war here!? 
i have seen much worse in such threads and of course such threads will go nowhere. he will get lots of different opinions and in the end he will have to decide on his own.
something else came to my mind about trying lots of demos. the problem is that for many applications it takes weeks to get the hang of them and after you are used to one of them it’s very likely that you can’t stand the way others are doing things anymore. so it can happen that you stay with one application only because you tried it first. 
about using 100% of a program… how about going with specialized apps? then you can just buy what you need. silo for modeling, messiah for animation,… or cinema4d has modules as well…
At work I am on the technical side of the house (server and systems admin), but if we need to meet a deadline, I am the jack of all trades that knows Final Cut Pro, Shake, and Lightwave enough to be useful. I am by no means gifted like the people that use those applications day in and day out.
Also, the company I work for is in the Video Production business. Lightwave usage is limited, a lot of title work and there if we need it.
Anyway, we are a Mac shop. Everything we run is Apple from the front office to the RenderFarm, to the Storage Farm. 3D Max is out of the question. We use Lightwave because it was cheaper than Maya, can produce broadcast quality renders out of the box, and the schools we hire out of teach at least an Intro to Lightwave 101. Furthermore, the local community college offers Beginners and Intermediate Lightwave courses for $275 a semester, which the company will pay employees that want to take it.
We looked at blender for a short period, especially to do rapid demos to show potential clients. But we ran into problems with the rapid changes Blender was undergoing, especially to the UI. The fact we cannot rush out to B&N or borders and get a couple books for the latest versions of Blender, unlike Lightwave, and that there were no locally available “How to use Blender” workshops caused Blender to eventually be turned down.
Is Lightwave any better than Max or anything else? I’ve always taken the opinion of use the right tool for the right job. Back in college I worked for an architecture firm part time and they used 3D Studio Max. With easy intergration with Autocad, it made 3DS the right tool for the job. The company I work for now, Lightwave is the right tool for the job.
If I worked for another company that heavily favored Linux, then Maya would be probably be the first choice. Boils down to the right tool for the right job, nothing more.
Yeah Blender’s docs really can’t keep up and it’s too bad. Need a team of writers to work along side the coders to keep docs going as fast but I believe LetterRip is working on getting the docs out the same time as new releases so hope it works out.
I was wondering about the Xgrid project, will that be mac only or will it matter to the end user?