"One of the things I am wondering, then, is how many actually use Poser professionally (i.e., doing illustration for which you are paid) and frequently? " Semi-Pro. I do use it as a tool in illustration work I'm paid for, but I fall out of your criteria on the "and frequently" part. I haven't been a full time working professional graphics artist since 1992-93 or so. Since then, I do the occassional job for clients, when it's something I'm interested in. hence the "semi-pro". Techically, if you get paid, you're a professional. However, poser is a tool that I use, but it's a, not the only tool. The full suite of tools I use for illustration and ad design run the gamut from Studio VIZ, Bryce, TurboCAD Professional, Rhino, Illustrator [for layout design and shape design], Painter 5 and Photoshop for text, layering and effects, and for image compositing. There isn't any single tool in that collection that's "most important", except maybe Photoshop... they're ALL important because each of those does something very well that's critical to the end result: the final image. And every single phase from layout to set design to typography is part of the whole. None of it stands alone or can feasibly be done in a single app [by me anyway].

"I am a good person now and it feels... well, pretty much the same as I felt before (except that the headaches have gone away now that I'm not wearing control top pantyhose on my head anymore)"

• Monkeysmell