I had a look at the demo of Carrara3 some time ago, and I was a little bit disappointed. There is lot of features, but "medium level". But the interface didn't helped me to fall in love with it too! (it is like Bryce you love or you hate;) ) But as you said symbios of both could be terrible! (for interface reason I will prefer the Vue +tons of c3 features:) ) For sl91911, maybe Esprit could be enough, Pro is more oriented for animation in fact. You can begin with Esprit, and if you feel Pro would be better, sidegrade, it cost appx the same price (Pro+Esprit = Pro alone);) But if you want the beautiful springtime birch, you have to have Pro:)