Hi there John We all have to start some where at some time. There is a "jungle" of good 3D programs available on the market. You have posted your request for advice in the Poser area so I must assume you already have made your choise.? :-) Well if so, you have made a good choise to my oppinion!! For years I have tried several programs and Poser is by far the most user friendly. If you chose a program like MAX your CPU and RAM will be crying all the way to the bank$. MAX is also a good program but asks the owner to purchase a specific grafic power machine. Poser demands power of your PC as well but is mostly acceptable. Aditional software: Poser is the most used program and therefore it have the largest forum. You can find "freebees" allover the net.... and they are free! You may reply me on request for additional support