Hi,

I don't have personal experience on them, but the 3dmodelz' WorldZ and ForegroundZ from Andix seem to be popular (and on sale until end of February, $14 for both).

For photographic backgrounds, there is the Infinity Cove which is free, Nerds backdrop tool ($10, pretty similar thing I guess), and the Cyclorama from DaZ which might work better for animations since it includes some flipboards ($15). Note though that with Poser 5 you will have to fiddle with the material a bit to get the correct brightness for the background picture (see e.g. this thread). The same thing may apply for other background props as well.

If you want more power than Andix paks can offer, then there are external programs which are in an entirely different league - unfortunately, also pricewise. You'll want something that can import Poser directly. The alternatives are pretty much Vue d'Esprit ($199 + $99 for animation) from e-on software and World Builder ($399, animation included) from Digital Element. For the differences of the apps I can't give personal comparison since I don't own both, but my impression is that Vue is easier to use and better productized but lacks some of the features and power of World Builder. Vue community is much larger, so there is more free content available.

Since you characterize yourself as a newbie, my recommendation would be to get the Andix WorldZ V2 and ForegroundZ V2 and download the infinity cove (Go to http://host1.bondware.com/~syydr/, register and then follow the "Free RDNA" link on the left - there's also something called a "Cyclo-drop" if you browse the free stuff). This will set you back all of $14 and should give you plenty to play with. There are free textures for the Infinity Cove available, but you may have to search a bit. You can also try just using any suitable photograph JPG.

Best Regards,

--Oskari