...I just recently started doing some tests animating in C5Pro using native import of Poser characters. At first it felt clunky just because it was different (I'm very comfortable with Posers animation tool set only because I've worked with it a lot), but it's starting to feel smoother with practice. One thing so far that I love: predictable IK! I still have to do more tests, but up to this point the IK has been great to work with, which I can't say about Poser. Carrara also has more contraint options, an important part of any animation tool set, which I haven't had time to play with much yet. C5Pro also has 8 different kinds of interpolation. Can't comment on whether Carrara would make sense for the work flow you described. I've never had a reason to send something back to Poser once I've imported it to Carrara ;)