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And finally, Max, Maya, and basically every 3D package out there save Blender are prohibitively expensive
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Depends. In the case of autodesk for sure. That was one of the reasons I abandoned and switched to modo which is quite affordable.
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/91036/
With deal you also get MARI, a real good texturing and painting tool. (Like substance, just better)
If that is prohibitively expensive, I honestly wonder how people can afford the hardware…