Welcome back to the Carrara group, arcady. I remember you from back in the day. (I was AzChip then, I moved to San Francisco, hence the name change....) I am remembering that I read somewhere that Inverse and Forward Kinematics both are possible in Carrara, but I haven't used them, so I can't say so for sure. I've also not played much with the UV mapper in C5 -- but I found it to be effective, if not terribly flexible in C4. There will be some funky "why can't this do that" kind of moments with any software, and Carrara is no exception. Particularly since it's coming at the 3D world from its more-or-less hobbyist roots of RayDream. That said, I've been using Carrara for professional broadcast work and for an independent Science Fiction film now, for years, and have been pleased as punch with its capacities.