I heard some good stuff about lightwave 3D but i cant seem to get a trial version or anything. could someone tell me where to get a trial version, or do you have to buy it?

This thread might be helpfull.

http://gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=202348

Gpoliece

Lightwave is, compared to other packages around it's price, very easy to learn, it's laid out simplistic without hyerogliphic buttons and hidden menus.

For a proper modeling workflow you'd need quite some (usually free or very cheap) plugins tho, which isn't really a problem.

In lacks in animation, where it's rather painfull compared to any other package ...but then it's still the cheapest package around the $1000+ Software.

The renderer is strong with built in radiosity, although it's not necessarily fast. There's a plugin for it called FPrime (not cheap) that renders about 10x faster and you can have it running updating in realtime while you set up lights etc on hipoly scenes/models. With Fprime it beats quite some more expensive packages in confort, without it, it's quite painfull to set up lights and effects and rerender until you're happy.

LW 8 which has been recently released already includes some of the most usefull plugins for modeling now, most of the revamp has gone into Layout (animation part). Some great improvements, mainly in an effort to catch up with other packages.


If you mainly want to model i'd recommend 'Silo' (http://www.nevercenter.com/), it's a modeling app only, costs 100 bucks, beats LW and some more expensive packages in modeling ...and there's a free trial.
The interface/menus are completely customizable, i think you can download somewhere setups that mimic other packages (LW/Maya etc).

You can export/import with it from/to other packages.