NEW to 3D!!!!

I hope someone can help me. I've been a designer for sometime now. Started back in 1993. I would really like to get into the powerful 3D design world. (Ah to be a part of the team at Dreamworks!)...

I've had some experience with Strata Studio Pro, but I would like to work on a more powerful program. The problem is this....I don't have the money to buy a program right now, and if i do, I would like to know HOW to use it and whether or not I would like to continue in this direction of 3d and animation. I know Flash rather well....

I have a Mac G4 at home and was wondering if anyone knows of some good software that can be gotten in a trial version so I may learn it first. Is lightwave the way to go? How about 3D studio max, is there a MAC version? I heard Maya was coming out w/ a mac version, Though for the price of that sucker, I would have to try it out for sure first! Well, Thank you for your help!

V

Ah, the ever tricky MAc 3D question

IMO, LightWave (especially the newest version) is one of the best programs around for the money, it's far from cheap but it's got tons of features and an awesome renderer, and as you noted it is available on the Mac. 3D Studio Max isn't available on the Mac and there are no plans to port it over as far as I know, Maya will be coming out for OSX but, well, it ain't gonna be cheap

If you're looking for a lower cost solution with some good capability I'd check out Inspire 3D by Newtek (same guys that make LW). You can find it for about $350 online, and it's got most of the modeling tools and the same renderer as LightWave 5.5, which for the price is pretty amazing. It lacks some of the more advanced character animation tools, but as a start it's a great program. Hope that helps...

Chris