I use Carrara because it supports Poser content and can do a little bit of everything. I am learning to model with Silo and so far Silo and Carrara seen to work well together. I have a few short animations on Youtube http://youtu.be/_C1ACSLUsBQ.  I want to do a Sci Fi short someday with all my own models. I use Gimp for texturing my UV maps and still render post work. Thanks for looking at my gallery, commenting and sharing your own art with me here on Renderosity.