but I am really impressed, all I need now is a render farm so I can learn quicker

If that is your first render then I take my hat off to you... A lot better than my first render.

LOL.. Everone wants to learn quicker once they start to realize what carrara can do. I have been using carrara now for about 3 years and I am still finding hidden tools that amaze me. For what carrara costs I don't think you can any better.

long time no see Benney! u well??

not my first but one of the better ones lol, is the first time I tried the caustics tho'  so many buttons on bells I'm just working round them all to see what they do, still prefer hex for modeling but am playing more and more in C

TC m8   Edd

I'm fine thanks.. Just keeping my head above water as they say LOL.

That's the best way to learn about carrara I think. Just twiddle with the settings and see what comes up and I have to agree with you, when it come to the modeling side, Hexagon is also my favourite.

I totally concur. Carrara is awesome. I don't know it all, but what I can achieve with it so far is very satisfying. I am coming to terms with Hex. I model mostly with Wings, but Carrara doesn't care. Carrara 8Pro, and several versions before have never even blinked when I would import a model with lots of object groups, even some with a lot of Ngons when I made early modeling mistakes. This and the new lighting, among other tools would seem to make it a very viable choice for arch-viz and product simulation. I just have a lot of fun with it mostly.

I cooked this up last night in about 20 minutes.  I'm not done with it but I still got great comments on it today at work.  When I'm done, I'll post in the gallery.

I love being able to think of an image and then BANG, I have it.  It doesn't get better.

Nice image Kix.

Looking forward to seeing your further developments.