Yes, I'm with Metin. I was offered a complimentary copy of Modo, tried it for a week and realized I couldn't get good with it without a huge investment in time. I think that's a real problem with 3D these days. There are so many modelers and renderers and workflow pipeline tools that you can't just 'jump in' as an everyman, but are instead required to be a specialist.
Even non-specialists need an array of tools. This day and age you typically need at least NURBS and Polys. Then a good cage modeler is important, as well as topology modeling. So, that's 4 workflows right there. MoI is my favorite, but I use SketchUp for Polys, Lightwave for SUB-Ds, and 3D Coat for topology.
Rendering is just gaga right now. I just got through a 2-week (over the holidays) intensive workout of Octane. I *really* wanted it to work-- I have the rig for it and it's freaky fast AND unbiased, but the workflow is just too much-- besides it's so damn buggy. At least the plugin for SketchUp was literally unusable. They gave me a full refund after they had to agree.
I was really impressed with Marmoset Toolbag but unfortunately they can't render any VR stuff, which is what I'm looking for at the moment. But the GI baking looks cool and you can pick up the program in an afternoon.
Marco convinced be to pre-purchase Instant Light. Now that it's out of beta I might check it out again, but the GUI was so bad: damn hard to figure out, I'll probably pass. Not many developers have the design and interface intuitions Michael has-- as evidenced by the Instant Light mess.
And of course there's the UE4 and/or Unity for VR and realtime graphics. Lots and LOTS to learn there.
Finally, best for last: there's good ole' reliable: KeyShot. Damn fast. Robust. Super simple. Damn expensive.
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