Zerelli,

It depends on what you want to do. Ray Dream was a pretty good low price package for it's day, you can do animations. There are even bones available from AFX, though I have heard rumors that they aren't in business anymore or certainly aren't responding to email and for the price of the bones from AFX, you can almost get the Carrara upgrade. If you are just doing simply fun hobby stuff, you can probably get by with RD. If you need to get more advanced (bones, subdivision surfaces, GI rendering, etc.) look at Carrara, you can get the upgrade from Ray Dream for $150 from pcconnection.com. Another option is start your project in RD, if you hit a wall see if Carrara will get you by that. Carrara can import Ray Dream files pretty well so you will be able to retain much of your work.

Good luck,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
3D Extensions for Carrara
http://digitalcarversguild.com

Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
Carrara and LightWave plug-ins