Hi Prinny, 

Welcome to Carrara! 

Yep, 3D means you are in charge of your whole universe and responsible for everything. 

The easiest thing to do for checking reflections and shaders is to click on Scene in the properties palette. This will reveal a new panel that shows options for Background and Back Drop. For Background, choose the default bi-gradient. For back drop, you can choose a gray or black color - really whatever you want. 

Shaders are one of Carrara's most powerful features. They can be as simple or complex as you want or need. They also can appear dramatically different depending on lighting in your scene also. The best starting point is to apply some of the stock shaders and then open them up to see how they're built. Once you get an idea of what you'd like, post back with a that info and it will be much easier to give you good direction. Otherwise, the subject is huge!

Mark