I started out with Poser. I needed it for use in modelling cartoon figures as an amateur pastime (hobby). In those days, Poser 1 was extremely primitive, so I waited for Poser 2 before starting. This was prior to the extensive use of morph targets and textures that we see now. Poser was a product offered by Fractal Designs, which gave me a discount on one of the early Ray Dream versions (3 IIRC). Since I needed something for modelling and props, I bought that, then continued with the updates through 5.5, by which time Ray Dream was a product of MetaCreations. Carrara was their upgrade from RD 5.5, so I picked it up. Then came the MetaCreations shake-out. I bought Amorphium at the time, to see if that modelling technique was better for making props. Poser went to CuriousLabs, run by the guy who had originally created Poser on an Apple II computer (the one invented by Jobs and Wozniak). Carrara went to Eovia, and I'm happy to say both current versions of Poser (4.03) and Carrara (1.1) are stable and easy to use in most aspects, and they work well together.