Thank y'all for the inputs.

I forgot to mentioned that I have a decent computer, and is planning to buy a work station just for the new 3D software.   (My bad experience with Bryce 3's slow render was years ago with an older computer, which was quite decent at that time.)

I tried to locate a demo version of Cararra, but couldn't find it.   It appears that Vue's official site has much better support than Carrara's (now Daz3D).   e-onsoftware.com also has updates for Vue's product line that claim to have fixed some major known issues.

Regarding modeling, I believe that Carrara does a better job than Vue.   However, in researching the cheap to middle-range modeling apps, I found that some have "Brush Modeling" tools that :                                                                                                                                                              "...work like image editing tools, and let you smoothly edit, refine and paint your models..."

which I look forward to and plan to invest in.   As such, Vue's limits on modeling isn't an issue for me now.  

I'm still curious about Carrara, if aeilkema or somebody could point out the link to its downloadable demo, I'd appreciate it.

For modeling, I'm now doing some research on ZBrush, Hexagon, and Silo.
I'll try out the free anom8or and Wings3D, too.

Thank y'all again!   And vince3, thank you for the tut on Vue.

3DVim

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