As I'm officially giving a flash worshop now, I'm obliged to say that flash kicks the **** out of fireworks.
'Xept of course that my co-tutor would disagree and he knows a lot more about this **** than I do.
As for rendering, try cinema 4d XL. I'm sure you could pick up a demo version somewhere. It's really fast and has very good raytracing, as far as I can tell. It just needs some work on the sfx like lensflares, glow and stuff, they are post render now and don't reflect.
but its really really fast.
Oh yeah. About paint shop pro.
You MUST be kidding. Any program that puts 'pro' in its name obviously isn't.
And yes I used it.
Mac freak ,you betya.
And I definetly believe in paying more for quality.
My system is about 5000$
and if I was allowed to make more money (student, yeah) I would probably spend that on my machine as well. Just another 1000$, mind you. I'm not that nerdish...
yet.
Didn't your momma teach you not to mess with humans?