I love Carrara although I haven't used it much since I switched to C4D. Carrara is actually better at somethings but I wanted the expanded capabilities of C4D although I must admit, I haven't gotten around to learning a lot of the more intensive modules yet. Although for the power you get, the learning curve isn't nearly as bad for C4D as it could be. Carrara is a really feature packed program, especially for the cost. Physics, character animation, great renderer, built in fractal terrain, instance on an object animation, poser integration, and the list goes on. Silo is also a great application. Currently, as you know, it's strictly a modeling program. I'd suggest that you get a trial version of Carrara (at least I think there is such a thing) and play around with it a little. You really can't go wrong with Carrara Pro if you want a feature rich 3D application without shelling out $3000 bucks for it. I'd also get Silo as a companion to Carrara. I prefer subdivision modeling with Silo to Carrara but admittedly, I haven't played around much with the new subdivision modeler in the latest version of Carrara. Actually, I used Carrara's spline modeling much more than it's poly modeler. For what it does and ease of use, Silo is almost embarrassingly cheap. I have a feeling as it matures a little it won't stay that way, might as well get in on it now. Just keep in mind that Silo 2 is still in beta. It seems like it won't be long 'till it is released for the PC. Mac folks have to wait a little longer. I'm not sure if I can continue to buy future upgrades of Carrara and C4D, but if I can, I'll keep Carrara. To recap: I'd get Carrara Pro and Silo