You dont need to spend another cent if you don't want to. You already have truespace and that is already a more than capable program. We have several excellent truespace users at this forum who can produce work as good as and even better than images and meshes produced with Lightwave, max etc. Search for threads by KennyZ and Seanr and you will see what I mean. If you like many ask these guys what books etc would be worth while buying to help you get up to speed with your prog
Richard.