Autodesk Educational verions - Free

 From:  Basic Slave (CREATIVECONTROL)
4435.4 In reply to 4435.3 
Thanks, glad you like it ;)

I find between Softimage and MoI, I can model anything quite quickly. They work very well together.

In a dreamworld, MoI would be completely and seamlessly integrated into Softimage but that's just a dream.

Softimage uses Mental Ray as the standard rendering engine. A lot of people are frustrated with it but I like it. It's very powerful and flexible. You just have to spend a bit of time to really learn it. Softimage integrates it better than Max and Maya.

Other rendering solutions are available if you don't like MR.