As a relative beginner - I am interested in purchasing male and female figures for Poser 4. Just curious - there are so many choices at DAZ, etc. What are the favored figures, i.e., with associated characters, with built in morphs and available textures that I could tweak to achieve desirable results? To be honest - as I scan these forums - most of the information I read here is still over my head - but I am slowly swimming to the surface though! I would gladly purchase them - but would just like to know how those with experience feel about some of the available products. Any steering in the right direction is gladly received.

Victoria 2 and Michael 2 I think have the most versitility and variety of accessories. gotta love em :)

Although they just came out with Victoria 3 and Mike 3 is coming. Victoria 3 is a beauty but there are more products out there still for Vic2, although with a little tweeking you can get just about anything to conform to Vic3. If you were me, I would go for Victoria3 and wait for Mike 3...up to you though, it is just I really like Vic3 and she is cheaper now then she will be. Sharen

If you need help deciding what to get and how to figure out what is what just yell someone here will guide you, or you can write to DAZ and they will respond. Sharen

I cant help it...simply have to say: Vina D and Dina V from DSI.....

For a truly versatile male model you can't beat Micheal, the CD would be an excellent place to start as it has a lot of accessories and clothes for Micheal. If you were to purchse everything separately it would cost a lot more. Getting Micheal 2 I'm sure you would be elligible for an upgrade price on Micheal 3 when he comes out. I can't comment on Victoria, since I don't own her, but everyone in here seems to love her.

Attached Link: http://www.dacort.com/product_info.php?part_number=100

If you are wanting something truly unique...Dacort has a cutie by the name of Natalia. Register over at dacort.com and hit the freebies...look for Undine Lite (Natalia-Based Mermaid) and the free bikini so you can 'try' her out :o) The full Natalia 3.0 has a ton of unique morphs no other model on the market has. I've also got Victoria and Michael 2.0, good, solid models with tons of 3rd party support both in freestuff and marketplace...buy them as a CD and save a ton of money as opposed to buying figs, textures, hair and clothes individually!

Wow - I didn't expect so many rapid responses! I will tinker with these and after some patient effort will post again. Thank you so much to all.

rdhceo; What you want to do is going to establish what models you want to look at. For out of the box ease, you probably want to go with V2 and M2 (also, if you plan on buying any of the character sets, such as the ones that Dark Whisper sells, then you will -need- V2, as she is the base for the work). V3 has just come out, but her joint set up is different from the earlier versions, so none of the clothes conform to her without some work. Dacort's NataliaNatrixa (the full package has a human figure, and an 'elf' figure with 4 digits instead of 5 ) is a very good one for fantasy renders, as Dan has provided lots of figure altering morphs in N3. Dina is also a good one, and I think still holds the polygon count record. This makes it easier to create morphs for face and body, but it does require a system with lots of memory However, both suffer from a comparative lack of clothing. Vina D is a derivative of the Dina model ,that has been morphed and adjusted so that she can wear Vickie's clothing. Dina Z is the Dina mesh morphed into a Rubenesque (read heavy) figure. Almost nothing for her at this time, although the creator is working on some things.

Now I have some very definite ideas that steer me toward the right direction. From all of the advise that I have received - I am in a position to make a better choice in my upcoming purchases. It seems that once the base models are acquired and installed - the options are quite broad for clothing, textures, accessories, etc. Thanks again all.

The Business Suit guy that comes with Poser is a real winner (imho)!!!!!

Something to keep in mind: tho there is more out there for Vic 2 at the current time, V3 has a V2 body option and can therefore easily fit Vic 2's clothing. And you get the bonus of having V3's superior mesh when more V3 specific clothes become available. Personally, tho I loved V2, I am totally giddy about V3. So much better all around. Laurie

Like everything else, it depends on what you do with it. These are costume renders for a production of *Guys and Dolls*. In front, the P4business guy, with a new texture and colour mapping to the parts. Behind him, the stock P4, with Ghastley's vest-shirt combination, the stock pants, and business shoes. The hat on both is a freebie fedora found someplace I don't remember offhand.

And if you think the P4gent doesn't have a few surprises, this is one using a remap of the Mario texture from mec4d. I'm still refining it, but for a first draft, he's looking pretty damn good.

Hey - those are some outstanding compositions. Well - I am a little intimidated by the level of expertise that you all show. I now see how there is no substitute for experience - and a heavy helping of elbow grease (not to mention patience.) I like the P4 Mario image - especially the hair/beard textures - is that a pure Poser render? I have to admit I agree - it seems true with any endeavor - the tools are only equal to what you do with them - (I have yet to get my tools overly dirty yet - so to speak.) One last thing - you all seem to have so much time invested in learning these techniques - I guess it keeps us off the streets - right?

You might want to try Michael 1 and Vicki 1, just to get started. They're dirt cheap at DAZ in the Loft area now. They're more sophisicated than the stock P4 figures, and you an use them to upgrade to the higher versions later. I think they're only about $10 or $12 now. Melanie

It's pure Poser, no postwork. What all this says is: if you want to go out and spend a bunch of money on stuff from DAZ or wherever, that's fine, but there's plenty that can be done with the tools you have right there in the software. There's plenty of free things out there that, in combination, can draw some truly amazing things from the most unlikely places.

Were was every ones head at ? The best model of all is DA MOUSE !!!!!