Carrara is rock solid now, although a lotta people say C4D is the most stable of the 'major' animation apps. My C4D experience is limited to version 6 which I liked a lot. I would have stuck with it if I could have justified the cost when you throw in plugs. Carrara was cheap when purchased as a side grade to Poser which is how I ended up using it, although I don't think Eovia does that as a sales option any more. Dunno why. Carrara is a lotta fun, nice renderer, imports Poser scenes right out of the box (C4 Pro), but the inferface to me is kinda wonky even though I'm used to it now. I miss that about C4D. I'd suggest you check closely and see if any of the C4D plugs fall into the 'must have' category for you in order to determine your real cost. That can add up to quite a few bucks. Carrara plugs are generally cheaper, but it's in a different league from C4D. If you read the boards you'll find that most people consider C4D one of the 'major' animation apps and Carrara a 'mid range' app. Frankly, I don't need a 'major' app for the same reason I don't need Tiger Woods golf clubs. I'd still stink at golf no matter what clubs I used ;) That said, I really like Carrara. The skies and terrain tools in the Pro version are nice. I think the renderer is right up there with the 'major' apps. It's just a really 'fun' program to use in my opinion. One minor irritation to me about Carrara: I like to make my own Poser morphs in an outside modeler. Amapi Designer 7 which comes bundled with Carrara reorders vertices upon import of obj files causing some problems creating morphs for Poser. (Note that Carrara has it's own modeler as well, so you actually have two modeling apps when you get Carrara.) I've been lazy and using good ole Wings for Poser morphs. I'm told that you can make Poser morphs with Amapi if you're only working on one body part at a time, but I haven't fooled with it yet. I just wish Amapi didn't reorder the vertices in the first place, creating another complication to navigate around. Good luck in your app search. I don't think you can go wrong with either one of them.