Maya is more or less "the thing". Alias|Wavefront has always had a strong modelling package. And yeah, it's dirt cheap now -- it's become the ubiquitous program for nearly all animation schools. Their pricing structure has driven the prices down for most of the high-end software packages. Houdini is still holding out at about $20k USD for the full license, but like A|W, Sidefx has also started giving out a free personal learning package (which doesn't watermark your renders).