This is what I've done (albeit just messing around with it from time to time). I confess I used a cracked copy of c4d since a lot of the things I wanted to check out weren't included in any "lite" edition.
Not sure I feel great about that but I treated it the way I treated Photoshop and friends for years: cracked copies while learning and then at some point I was using it enough that I bought a legit copy of CS6 through work at a discount.
If I ever do more than fiddle around with C4D I'll look into buying a copy. It's just hard to come up with $1000 for the minimum version that supports global illumination (which I was trying to learn about).
Moral and legal issues aside, though, I found it a lot easier to learn than others I'd tried and it even made some other programs like Unreal Engine easier to learn.
Not sure I feel great about that but I treated it the way I treated Photoshop and friends for years: cracked copies while learning and then at some point I was using it enough that I bought a legit copy of CS6 through work at a discount.
If I ever do more than fiddle around with C4D I'll look into buying a copy. It's just hard to come up with $1000 for the minimum version that supports global illumination (which I was trying to learn about).
Moral and legal issues aside, though, I found it a lot easier to learn than others I'd tried and it even made some other programs like Unreal Engine easier to learn.