Concepts for rendering have been keeping me up at night. I don't care to suffer sleepless nights until the end of August, so... I'm transitioning from primarily using Carrara to Maya. Oooh, big industry-standard program. Should Maya prove to be easier to use and more powerful as well (as one would expect from a lesser-known program and an industry-standard program) then perhaps Maya will completely replace Carrara. Time will tell.

Keep monitoring; currently in the tutorial phase. I've finished four tutorials in two days, as I still have summer courses to focus on. Tutorials remaining are approximately... 50 (rough guess). I'm not that patient, though; renders will be made as soon as I finish all basic tutorials. "Good" renders should follow as more tutorials are completed.