well, I don't forget many applications need too much resources in terms of hardware devices and  capital costs too, so I guess Carrara may be a right choice even for short and cheap animations.
as soon as possible I wanna try
by the way my daughter, 7 yo, is a great Vue easel expert , I do have to recognize

dvlenk6, I know what you mean, my personal test didn't born to find the ultimate software but to get a comparison between their own outcomes as consequence of simple and easy settings, so that the learning curve gets similar each other and keeps low, thus verifying the response and give a quality judgement; that is so far, to my opinion, a way to compare several software for consumer uses.
ciao

hi all, that's a few minutes setting render made by Cinema 4d R 8.5; I have to say that despite of the excellent speed of the engine (6'21'' at 2000 x 1500 with great AA outcome) I find very difficult to set an appropriate lighting atmosphere in C4D and the result seems not so amazing; that' s let me emphasize  once again that Carrara has easy and useful presets and a very good render engine; at the present  for me it is the best software ever used for photorealistic renderings.
next fight: Carrara versus V ray
stay tuned

The contest (similar settings and outcomes):
Carrara 5    6' 54 at 3200 x 2400 - previous post
Vue Pro 6    22' 58 at 2160 x 1440 - previous post
C4D 8.5      6' 21 at 2000 x1500
......

sorry, I don't know why I can't attach 2 files in the same message (I'm a new forum user, you know) anyway this reply let me specify another thing about the size of the two images; actually the Carrara one is 3200 x 2400 px  and the Vue one is 2160 x 1440; that's why the different behaviour of the AA filter to perform similar quality.
The model was taken from the web, I don't remember where and it is in .lwo format

actually all I do to speed up import/export transfer is create an alpha plane or a terrain in Vue PLE (or Infinite or Xstream if you own them), assign a material, select  and export it as .3ds object  paying attention to check color and bump maps and map resolution at 400x400 and then simply import into Carrara; in the linked image walls painting, wood floor, wood side tables and sofa texture were made this way; obviously with Carrara you can reach same results but in Vue there are many excellent prompt shaders so why not to be useful of?