Alright, thanks guys. It sounds like it helps you get past the parts of the creation process I hate the most- the constant going into photoshop, painting it on, having it look like sh** then going back and doing it again an additional 500 times.

Second question is: I haven't gone to school for this or anything, yet. Should I get this before I go to school(this coming fall)? I know that making anything remotely believable in maya without training has a certain blank check quality at a lot of schools at the moment, does the same hold true with Zbrush?

Also, The reviews for it all either hate it or love it, but I can't really find any explanation of its features and how they compare to the various 3d paint platforms (price vs. effectiveness in particular). Anybody have a summary or a review favorited that would cover this?

Sorry for so many questions, but hell, its expensive.