skyfire

Theres a few really good programs out there. Max, Lightwave, Maya, and others. All are great apps. Depending on what your wantin to do, its a matter or preference as to which would be best for you.

Max has been traditionally aimed at game development work, it doesnt see alot of use in mainstream film production. Dont misunderstand, its still a great app and has lots of good tools. When coupled with an aftermarket render system like Brazil, or now Mental Ray incorporated into V6, really allows you to do more with it.

Lightwave has become very popular and is bein used for film production, more as a modeling tool versus an animation and rendering app, but meh. LW takes an unusual approach to its program. Theres actually 2 apps with it. One is modeler and the other is layout. It takes some gettin used for some poeple, but once u get familiar with it, it really does seem to help the workflow.

Maya is another great app, that sees failry regular use in film work at this point. Its modeling tools are excellent, with great particle systems and rendering options. From what I understand, Maya has a steep learning curve on it, all these apps do, but Maya seems to be more so.