I''m a 17 year old Senior who is interested in using advanced 3d programs, and different art programs.. But everything I look at such as 3D Studio Max, Maya, etc... Cost a fortune. I can''t afford such a price,,,,, Im wondering how do normal people like me get software like that? are there different alternatives? Because I don''t understand how people would be able to practice with those programs until they went to a computer art school, or actually were involved in the industry... I would also be interested in hearing the what the actual prices for these programs. Thanks, any help i would appreciate greatly

look into academic versions of the software you want. Basically the same software, but you''re not allowed to make money of off anything you produce, in other words, for academic purposes . I think anyway.


"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dreams."
- Willy Wonka

maya is 16k for full version and 7k for educational version, no im not lying, trust me i use it at school, 3dsmax is by comparison far cheaper at about 1k, i do not suggest this but i know it is true that alot of people learn on hacked software, i know this from experience too. the fact is it takes hundreds if not thousands of hours to get good enough, and if you are just learning obviously you cant make money with it yet so you cant afford the program, quite a dilema, id say get it however you can and use it use it use it you cant stand the sight of a computer screen anymore

there''s a cool freeware rendering program called blender.
trust me, it can do some cool stuff, and it''s a complete environment just like 3dsmax, not just a raytracer or something like that. so, if you wanna get into that kinda stuff, by all means, download it! i think the url is www.blender.nl.