anyone heard of AC3D? I'm looking around for 3d modeling programs from $20-$300 I once new of one that just used nurbs for $300 but I can't find it. any ideas?

aha! found the $300 one:

Animation Master http://www.hash.com/2007web/

anyone ever use it?

I haven't used it even though I knew the son of Hash's president and founder in high school. I know a former coworker who used it and said it was decent for character modeling and animation but didn't have experience using it for much else.

Use blender, it's free and very powerful. www.blender.org. You just have to learn how to use it, there's a wiki with tutorials.