i had Carrara long before i got LW. i bought it in the 6.0 days because of the fbx exporter that turned out to be totally worthless. but i kept it because i sidegraded to LW and needed the carrara key. after i discovered the displacement painting tool in carrara, i grew to love that function and drew organic model displacement/normal maps with it. and rendering in carrara is quick to set up. in minutes, you can have a nicely lit scene and render it with GI/sky light.

modo is a mainly modelling tool. i still model most of the time in wings3d, because it allows me to create low poly models in the absolute minimum of time. i use lw for animation (i practically don't use LWModeller at all, only LWLayout). i hope that the revised 9.5.x will export the animation data correctly to collada files.

now carrara has the 3d painting tool. my update from 6 pro to 7 pro just was 104 euros due to the $ exchange rate. where do you get a 3d painting (and sculpting) tool for just 104 euros? so well, i am keeping it. only the lack of animation support in collada files bugs me. i had hoped for more.