I'm sorry but unless I'm reading it wrong, for $500 I'd go with XSI Foundation and use a package that pretty much an industry standard...

Even Carrara 5 Pro (or now v6 Pro) might be a better bang for the buck.

Granted, I used TS from v1 up till about v4.3 (or something like that) and it was cool, I LEARNED 3D using that package but I'll admit there are also things I don't like about Caligari as a business and how they do stuff...

-Will