Thanks Stwert. I read up a little bit more on a comparison thread at DT. AE probably is the best choice for me. I think I have this natural gag reaction to the node-based UI because I'm so use to working with timelines. AE has a timeline and I'm liking the sound of layers. I can't figure out if Toxik / composite has a timeline, or is node only. If it does have a timeline...toxik may be more powerful for encoding and adding motion blur? Is this correct? But does it lose out on anything else AE has? I could care less about texturing or doing anything in a compositor that can be done in Maya or another 3D app.