Things I like: Price- Even with the new 'Pro' marketing versions, bang-for-the-buck is great! Shader Room- SOOOOO much depth can be had, with multiple layers of modifiers to a few colors to create a great many things without having to rely on texture maps alone. Quality of renders- Someone said it earlier: just a couple clicks and a prety picture comes out the other side. And when you need control, it's there too. (Better tutorials on how to use the advanced features would be helpful.) SDK- Thank GOD for plug-ins! Simple things ilke Replica really should be in Carrara allready. Same for Swap and some others... BUT, when you need something different, and there are people who have the ingenuity and patience and coding skills... Thank you Eric and Julien! :D Things I dislike: Metaball Room- What is this useful for? I haven't tried it in 2 versions, since others have told me it's the same... Storyboard Room- I do my best to NEVER hit this button! If I do, it brings my computer to it's knees, and my computer is NO slouch! I like the idea of it... BUT it takes forever to have it fill up the panels with veiwpoints. Things I'd like to see: Particles- They need to interact with other objects... and maybe physics as well? (Wind-blown sand/rain/snow, contrail behind jets that spreaad out to 'wind' force, etc.) Dynamics- Soft-body, cloth, hair, soft body, rigid body Animation- A graph editor for animations would be wonderful. Animation Master, Maya, Lightwave, they all have some version of this and it allows for a great way to edit cyclic things MUCH better then the 'Tweeners' can. All this said, I've tried a few others and Carrara is where I stay and put my money down. :D