Well, you'd be surprised what you can get for very little cash if you go for student copies of these programs. Last I checked, Studica was selling Lightwave 9.6 for about ?100 or so, now, LW is the cheaper end of of the graphics market but it's still used professionally, is entirely self-contained and with the 9.x cycle they've sort of been taking it seriously - cloth dynamics, fiber dynamics, efficient lighting, all self-contained rather than in third party plug-ins. All that for ?100 or so, not bad. Downside is that you need to be a student (or faculty member of a registered institution).
But I was reading somewhere that "student" prices don't necessarily apply just to students, you can get these things cheap providing that you just don't use them commercially, like with a released film. I can't remember where you can get these from if you're not a student, however, but I think it's definitely possible.
