I will also echo what has been said here... find a free 3D program or a demo first and play with that before launching yourself into a full-fledged version. I, too, am in the learning stages of modeling and currently have Carrara Studio 3 and Amapi Designer 7 (both from Eovia). Mike De La Flor has a great book out there currently called "The Carrara Studio 3 Handbook". It starts by introducing you to the tools and work areas in Carrara, and slowly builds your skills via tutorials. It was written with the newbie in mind and has been the greatest help I have found so far. I even like it more than the VTC training video. Bottom line is what you want out of the program. Are you looking for a modeling tool, but not concerned about its rendering or animation capabilities, or are you looking for everything in one package? Quite honestly, as much as I would love to have Maya, Lightwave or C4D, I can't see spending that kind of money for a program -- no matter how well it renders or animates. For my purposes, CS3 does what I need it to do.

Regards,

Dave Frohmader (Nagus)

DAZ Studio for Beginners Tutorials