I know how you feel kenmo. But have patience, and try not to burn any bridges. Yeah, it seems a good deal of the better English-language Carrara sites are looking for scratch more often than not. (Unless you can read French, then you may have more options. I know I can't, and good luck with web-translators on technical subjects.) However I suspect if freelance work is as hit or miss for others as it is for myself, I can't entirely blame them for seeking out extra scratch that way. (Even if it doesn't always fit what seems to be the spirit amongst most software apps. And yes, we're probably spoiled from Bryce and the open source apps.) Good tutorials do involve work to make afterall.

As for the materials browser, it's that panel at the bottom of your screen. (You may have to look for "browser" under the view menu if it's not there. Also start a new file first, I don't think Carrara defaults with an empty project upon start like some other apps..) There should be two tabs down there on the lower left. One says sequencer. That's all your timeline stuff if you're doing animation. Since you want materials, pick the browser one if its not up front already. Then you'll see another set of tabs inside that. If have something placed in your scene, you can pick the shaders tab. There will be another area inside that where you can scroll around. Then it's drag and drop like was said before. (Easy peasy!) It actually makes sense ones you figure out where the stuff is.

On the right side panel, you'll also have another area for shaders. Double clicking on an shader there will let you edit that shader for the scene. You can also drag an edited shader from there to the browser, in order to save it as your own. When you get to the specifics in that area, you can get your questions answered on this forum. (It also helps if you do a few screen grabs too, if not entirely clear on different buttons and gizmos or whatever.)

It would be nice if Daz could work out their manual a little better. (I'd suspect they probably are doing so for one of the newer releases.) The manual for 5.1 is really obtuse in places, and I have found a tutorial or two in video format linked from GKDanta's site that explains things a lot better than that manual does. (But be prepared to turn the volume way up on some if you're hard of hearing or have weak PC speakers. They have the audio levels a bit too low, but I suppose that's still better than badly blown out and clipping audio from going too far the other way.)

I'd be tempted to do some really basic stuff on YouTube. But my problem is I'm using older hardware. A single core CPU + limited memory (1 gig seems to be limiting when doing some video stuff) while trying to run a full-screen recorder and Carrara which both want to hit on the hard drive doesn't work very well. If it weren't for that, I'd probably have a few very short clips on the basic newb type stuff. (Sometimes it's actually best to make the tuts right after you figure out a thing or two yourself, because then you remember where your own pitfalls were.)

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Barbequed Pixels?

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There might be something worth downloading.