well im just new to XSI and all the animation thing but it seems to be kinda easy ones u get the items you want created. Now if your talking about creation on XSI than that also depends on what ur trying to make.(men are easy but animals i cant do) That might just be me since im only 14

XSI is effective as hard to learn, once you´ve got experience on it, the workflow is really fast. I am using it 6 years ago since version 1.3 and I find it more useful and flexible than MAX or MAYA, of course, everybody defend their own work tool, but it worth expending time learning XSI. This is my main character, modeled and animated in XSI. Chackout stuff at www.armandozarate.com  PEACE 4 ALL!

I come from a background in WorldCraft which was an awesome level maker for Quake and HalfLife, and quite easy to learn. I also dabbed in Maya which I used for about 1 year which was also pretty easy to learn.

Now I'm using Softimage XSI 5.0, I've been using it for about 2 years.
I'm frustrated over the IK and Perfered Joint Axis of Rotation that XSI applies by default to every bone... those seem to me to be counter productive to a animator that likes a lot of freedom. I much rather animate without useless restrictions... I don't like my bones twirling out of control in XSI. Recently though I have figured out how to disable the IK and tweek the Joint rotation in XSI, but I'd still prefer Maya to animate in.

I do agree though that it is hard to learn.