Oh well I shifted from Bryce to cinema with no problem.The Cinema package, if you buy it is difficult to lift from the floor. Its this heavy because it is full of manuals.The tutorials are small but clear and good.The manuals are a model of clarity.The render module is worth the extra money.I do not think you can import DOF data. If you buy this you will probably end up rendering with Cinema's render engine anyway.'must have's''Well there are many free pluggins for Cinema and many that cost a small amount,They range from small modelling tools to entire tree creation systems or volumetric atmoshpere engines. Best is sometimes biggest. I would go for Bodypaint as an absolute essential.It is also cheep at the moment. Imagine a 3d photoshop inside bryce, paint on you're models in 3d in real time.I found the learning curve to be not steep,cinema is very well structured, but it is long. By this I mean there are lots and lots of things to take in. all understandable and well illustrated in the manuals(there are five manuals and a tutorial book in the XL bundle) but so much more to take in it takes a proportionately longer time to learn....the HDRI is jaw dropping. So is the soft IK and the SLA shader system...lots and lots of goodies