hi i got adobe le, corel, micrographics tools and i dont seem to be able to do much easily... micrographics simply 3D really does blow... and the latest adobe and corel are 2D (save dreamworks, which is really obsolete) what programs should i get to compose competent 2D and 3D images, and files, easily and efficiently?

Photoshop is industry standard, this is what you should really learn to use. If you have trouble-producing artwork on it, try doing it on paper then scan it in to PS. I don’t think you can beet good old pencil and paper. Get something like gmax, you have the best low poly tools you can get and its not hard to learn. Do i sound like i work for discreet, cos i don''t?

PS and Painter is all you´ll ever need for 2d matrix images.

For 3d gmax is probably not a bad choice, although I´ve heard that there are lots of exporter limitations. MAX would be the next choice in line, or better yet, Maya.... Milkshape is pretty decent among the low-cost modellers, don´t bother with Truespace (strange interface, lots of trouble).

One that I like to use is called Anim8or, it''s completely free and has lots of advanced features considering it''s price =/. Go to anim8or.com to check it out. Milkshape is also good, and it can import / export a lot of things. gmax is awesome, but it only saves as it''s own file format, and i don''t think anyone but discreet really knows how to parse the file format for it properly, so you couldn''t use it in your games... BUT, with the tempest (requires q3) plug-in for gmax, you can export to .md3, and then load that into milkshape and convert to a number of other formats...

PaintShopPro also is good. Don''t have a lot of filters that PS, but for 3d, you don''t need a lot of filters.

(Sigh) I know I''m sounding like a broken record but Blender is a good 3D program. The full version is free to download and use. It takes time to learn but it can be worth it if you''re going to be investing serious time and energy into 3D graphics.