@realstar
I guess it's a personal choice, but Imagine's six (at my last count) interfaces makes it terribly cumbersome. Amiga LightWave is a dream in comparison. As for output quality, they didn't produce Babylon5, RoboCop, SeaQuestDSV, etc., etc. with Imagine, nor C4D, nor Real3D.
The SFX for the original (and best) series of Babylon5 was rendered using a bank of A4000s running LightWave v3.5. Anyone familair with LW will know about the use of the Sharp Terminator function. This gives rendered planets a much more realistic appearance than Phong Shading alone will give. NewTek added that because of the demands of Babylon5. Not a lot know that!
Cheers,
JaX
(LightWaver above all)