Cool! I know a lot of people who start out with MAX but can't seem to get above a certain level, MAX needs a lot of 3th party plugins before it is any good for rendering (like final render stage 1 which is the standard renderer for Cinema 4d). The problem with MAX is that it is capable of some really highspec work like superrealistic muscle deformations and almost real physics, but the problem with that is that you need to know those plugins to the core before you can make full use of them. Left alone that together with MAX they will cost you more than a new Civic.
Cinema allready has those expensive plugins inside itself. Somewhat stripped down but that isn't much of a problem since I am not gonna use that extra super hard 10% of those plugins. So if you want to start out I suggest (no offense to the max users) you start out with Bryce if you are a total noob or Cinema which is a step higher. Cinema basicly now has all the features of MAX with a shitload of plugins with it's newest release: 8.5 . It has very fast motionblur (which is crucial for camera shakes), THE fastest raytracer and THE fastest radiosity engine (benchmarked them and cinema's the quickest by 200%). And Cinema's inner structure is less complicated which makes it really easy to work with (logic structure). Ofcourse MAX is better at some points, like Modelling (N-gons) and UV-mapping, that makes MAX perfect for game designers. But lighting, rendering and animation pretty much sucks unless you throw another $3000 at it.
When I did the bumpercar movie I only worked with Cinema 4d for 2 months (every day an hour or 2). I didn't read any manuals, I didn't spend frustrating hours looking for buttons, it was like playing a game, entertaining and rewarding. Everything went so easy! The second movie required some more work, some more modelling, some more animation and some more features like full scene motionblur. If I wanted to do this in max it would have probably costed me a week, but in CInema I got it nailed in a day (frustration less).
I do not want to sound like a MAX hater, I tried all high end software for half a year but I never could reach beyond that mediocre level unless I spend all my time on it. With Cinema it just went automaticly, after 2 months I was making better stuff that I did after 6 months of Lightwave practise. This is ofcourse a personal choice and does not neccessarily apply to other people. If I were you I'd try out all of ehm:
Lightwave Maxon
Max
p.s. There is a learning edition available for Cinema 4d, that means you only pay $240 for the entire package with the only restriction that you can't use it for commercial use but only for eductional. Lightwave, Max and Maya had it too but their renderers are Watermarked and limited to a certain resolution
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Good luck!
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