I don't know if you're still here to read any of the comments you'll receive. But I just wanted to write and let you know I understand how you feel. It looks like you're really good at getting great images out of Bryce and Poser and that's really what the problem is. When you're good at one package it makes it a lot harder to bang your head against the wall and try to learn another. I'm in the same position, I switched from Strata to Carrara when I got tired of Strata's lack of features and constant upgrade costs. Carrara has ten times more features (at 1/4 the cost) and I was really excited to get started using them. The problem is when you have 10 times the features it is 10 times harder to learn the software and when I start to get frustrated it's too easy for me to fall back to the software I know to get the job done.

The reason I'm going to keep trying, however, is because I've made that mistake before. Nine or ten years ago I had the chance to learn 3DS MAX, but I thought it was so much harder to make the images I was making with Strata I gave up. I realize my mistake now and I'm going to try and keep at it with Carrara, but it hasn't been easy.

I hope this helps.

P.S. I've yet to see any documentation for 3D software that is anything other than useless.