I want to animate full scenes along with characters with the following > rain, realistic wheather or I should say skys and clouds etc.., dynamic clothing, dynamic hair and fire, I think that about covers it. I was hoping I could do it with Carrara 2, Poser 5 and Vue D'esprit. My main goal is to animate a scene with all these elements inside one application if its possible. I'm hoping carrara could help me accomplish this. I'm a beginner so complicated programs are out of the question. I apreciate any thoughts and help thank you.

What you want sounds complicated in any program, including the three you mention. Poser 5 does have the dynamic clothing and hair, but I understand they do not export to Carrara 2. Maybe the bridge between the three will be made in the future (there are rumours and promises around), but I think you should at least take the use of additional software into consideration, compositing software. If you are a beginner, it might be wise to start with simpler scenes, wishes and ideas. Otherwise you will be frustates long before your Posergirls are running around a campfire in the thunderstorm...

Thank you for your reply. I thought I was just gonna get ignored. I new my hopes were set too high LOL. wHat I'm rying to do is to animate some Buffy The Vampire Slayer Episodes that I wrote, It's something I really wanna do. Maybe just the first one to see how that goes its the simplest one. But the characters would be low in polygon count like an XBOX BTVS game to cut down in rendering time, as long as I tell the story efctively. But thanks for your advice it's much appericiated. Unfortunately I'm to driven to just settle, If I would of just settled with another hobby I never would of become a fairly good 2d artist I atached a walpaper that I made for a friend showing my 2d drawing skills. I'm eager to animate a scene but don't know what software to use. I know my reply is long but plese bear with me. I've experimented with poser 5 so I'm not completely a begginer I know how textures work, and polygons, and bumpmaps. The only thing I need is the actual software experiance. Hoofdcommissaris thanks for your reply. if it comes down to it I'll use software to animate a scene in real time with graphics similar to an xbox game. If anyone knows of a program that can let me acomplish this please reply thank you. PS Yes thats Gambit and Spike and the girl in the middle is my friend she loves these characters LOL

Actually, Carrara can do a pretty good job of looking like an X-Box game if you render using one of the non-ray-tracing engines. It will significantly increase render speed, too. You're right; if you tell a story effectively, you're going to be able to get away with low-res animations. But I've been working on a little animation for a year, now, and am realizing that it's worth the extra time to tweak every shot to look its best. For me, it's a trade off -- instant gratification for quality of image. - Dex

Very cool work... any chance to see the rest of your friend? ;>