Anyone interested in starting to model there own clothes or props or even looking for a different render engine may be interested in the following. Maxon are running a sidegrade option for owners of Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop or After Effects. XL 7 will cost you $995 (799) while Art will cost you $495 (359). Check out the following link, offer is until the July 1st. http://www.maxon.de/index_e.html HJ

thats great news
I have Cinema 4DXl 7.3
its a great powerful all around package and very poser friendly

This will be the year of the price wars. Whether it is good or bad for the industry won't be known until all the acorns have dropped from the tree. The products need to be competitvely priced now (and some of these tools were vastly over-priced). However, they have to make enough of a profit to fund further research so that we get neat new programs in the future... if developers cut too deeply now in order to retain "market share", they may cut off that future growth. And we all know what happens when our favorite tools get dropped or parcelled out to other companies. We are lucky with Poser and Cararra and Bryce, but there were other tools. Yes, I need to save money and shop wisely. However, I recognize their need to make money so that I can have a choice when I shop. Carolly

Patience has it's rewards! Was hoping something like that would happen, Lightwave dropped their prices by ~$900 a couple of months ago, was waiting to see if c4d would...

Everyone's sliding down toward trueSpace price-range. I wonder how Caligari feels about this.

it seems like the Mythical alias/wavefront MAYA
burst the Price inflation bubble of high end 3D software,
with thier dramatic price drop early in the year

then newtek ( Lightwave) had to follow to stay competitive
now MAXON( Cinema) has succumbed to the downward pressure

I Imagine there is some nervous Hand wringing going on over at Discreet (the makers of 3D studio MAX).

Nope, 3DSmax has a larger pro base than most of the apps in the same range as it, and these admissions coming from a LW user... but Discreet doesnt just rely upon Max for income, also they released GMAX and have stated on their pages they have no intention of lowering the price of MAX. So I doubt discreet will do much except maybe expand the capabilities of Gmax to allow more gamers an entry into and generate more interest in the world of pro MAX users. Eg catch em as hobbyists tinkering with GMAX to create objects for Q3 and the like and get them interested in the higher end features available in the full application. Just an opinion

I think it was Newtek that started it (the price drops), correct me if I'm wrong s, thus putting 3d within the price range of those otherwise unable to afford it. (Trickle down)

$12,000 for Maya WAS the reduced, bare-bones price, and quite a drop from earlier years. They had had a couple of special promotions, too. A few years back, I was looking at $30-40,000 for a Maya workstation, and wondering how I'd justify that to my accountant. (I'd have to triple my rates to cover the increased overhead, which would have put me out of range for some of my favorite clients, among other problems.) I'm glad that I've gone this route instead. Poser artists are friendlier and more likeable and willing to help each other learn and more appreciative of that aid. The last time I helped a Maya artist, she snapped and insulted me besides. :: The last time I helped a Poser artist, her husband fed me dinner. :) Maya learners spend thousands more on fancy multi-month courses. We ask questions here in the various Forums. I suspect that that adds to the sense of community: we have all been learners at some point, and then we pass what we have learned on to the newcomers. Carolly

MAYA? P.T. BARNUM ?? Oh, I get it.