Thanks sfdex. Well, I have downloaded the demo and am working my way through it bit by bit. There are certain nice little workflow helpers that I am noticing, such as the Universal manipulator and the simple (but now almost standard) Alt + Mouse navigation. Overall, it is feeling quite comfortable overall. Rendering feature set looks really impressive, but I haven't tested much yet. Seem to be certain things missing though: 1) UV editor looks way underpowered (though admittedly this is early days and I haven't had time to explore it fully). Can anyone tell me any different on this? 2) OpenGL performance is not as quick with high res mesh as other apps. Is there something I am missing here? 3) Dynamics look cool, but I haven't used them much yet. Are they easy to use? 4) Are there any edge creasing / subD weighting capabilities? Thanks everyone for your responses so far. I must say that Carrara is a real discovery for me. It is surprisingly competent for such a price - I am intrigued with it. I may have some more questions though soon :)