Really you can have all the learning resources you want, but I've used Softimage, and it bogs down your system (mine is a 2400+amd with 1gig ddr, 128mb vid card and it still bogs) which is why I decided not to purchase it, even having a cube loaded in the scene started slowing the performance even more. Plus it crashed on me twice. Granted this could be just my system, but I've used it on another computer (intel 3.0 ht, 2gigddr, 256 vid card) and it had similar problems. I have yet to really bog Carrara down, and I put it through some rough tests. And saying that there are no resources out there, shows that you need to do a bit more research, as the others have said, there is 3dxtract.com which releases a monthly e-zine, vizualds with tips/tutorials, this forum, 3dxtract forum, yahoo list, 3dcommune forum, etc etc. My advice is seriously demo softimage before you decide, having used both myself, I decided on Carrara. The community is much more outgoing and friendly, and the company actually communicates with its users. Brian