At first, FX Home's Vision Lab Studios seems too good to be true. Not only does it offer the same visual and video manipulation system as its more well-known brethren, but it also includes presets for nearly every situation.

Need to make a video look like something from the recent War of the Worlds? Just drop the preset on the clip, and you're finished.

Oops! You meant you needed it to look like something from the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica? No problem. Just drop in that preset as well. Add in a full visual effects suite, and FX Home's package provides professional-level output at a price even small studios can afford.

Of course, it's not all hugs and kittens. FXHome utilizes a layer-based system like After Effects, which results in many of the same management issues. Regardless, it's a fantastic package for the price.

Of course, all of this software is just used to manipulate pre-existing images. What happens, then, if you need to create something out of whole cloth?

Newtek's LightWave is another oldie-but-goodie application. With roots that run back to Amiga's venerable Video Toaster, LightWave has seen use in TV shows as varied as Babylon 5 to Jericho.

LightWave includes the software to model and animate anything a producer desires. Additionally, Newtek includes unlimited render nodes with the purchase of one LightWave license. This means that users can literally connect every computer in their studio to create a render farm to speed up their work. Add in an enormous library of free tutorials available on the web plus a mature support base, and it's a great package for the price.

Unfortunately, LightWave's interface is starting to show its age. Add its cumbersome texture-mapping tools and its steep learning curve, and it's a package that is not for the faint of heart.

If there is an eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the 3D world, it is Autodesk's Maya. Used in everything from games to major motion pictures, it is by far the most utilized package in the 3D world.

Maya sports many of the same modeling and animation features as LightWave. Add in a slick, customizable interface and an enormous - and still growing - installed user base, and it seems that Maya is a no-brainer.

Unfortunately, there are a few sizeable disadvantages to the package. First, a single license does not include unlimited render nodes. Second, at more than four times the cost of LightWave, Maya is not a cheap investment. Last, with a tiered purchase system, Maya can be a confusing package for users to purchase.