Well, not even a newbie yet. I'm looking to get started in 3d human modeling, but I'm not so inclined as others with the actual progamming. Poseur is the program I've heard the most about, but which is the generally regarded chamion of 3d rendering for ease of use and affordability? Would like something that has both picture rendering and the ability to make short videos, but I dont want to have to order alot of extra software packs right off the bat. Help appreciated! John

John - the changed subject line is because there ain't no nudity or violence in your post, those flags are to warn people who are viewing at work (or have weak stomachs, like me). Poser will render still and moving images, though there have been lots of reports of stability issues with Poser 5 producing animations (as a stills only Poser 4 user I'm not sure of the current state of play there). You may wish to consider Poser 4 + ProPack rather than Poser 5 for animation. Poser includes basic figures and clothing, lousy hair and poor animals. Alternative hair models are available free, and there are a fair range of textures and some clothing items for the Poser 4 people (who also come with Poser 5), though bandwidth costs have killed some of the old sites. Still, most people eventually spend far more than the original apps. cost on alternative figures (Michael and Victoria from DAZ3D in particular), clothing, hair, animals, sets, .... Poser isn't a modelling application - you will need another thing if you want to make models from scratch - the Modelling forum here has links to many free possibilities for you to try if you want to go that way.

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

I forgot to say: I suggest, Poser 5 nothing less. I have solved the problems I had on stability of that program. Anyhow, a PC user knows to safe often, rather than to be sorry. Michael

There are people making movies with Poser, but the best place to get those links is perhaps the CuriousLabs website. (Their link is in the upper right corner.) Phoul and a couple of other guys do post to these threads, though. If you wish to actually model human beings from scratch, Poser isn't the best application. Lightwave, Max, Maya are the sort of programs you should be looking at. Poser is designed for taking a model and posing, clothing, rendering it in a scene. Carolly

I've been cranking out a ton of animation in Poser 5, lately. Finally started playing around with the Cloth Room, also. But I'm one of those lucky bleepards who hasn't had many serious problems with the software.

Hula Animation (hi-res, MPEG format, 869KB)

jens42 - There are one or two very popular 3D Magazines that have given away copies of Poser 3. 3D World or Digit may be one. If you ask around in this forum, you'll not only find out the name of the mag., but which Vol. you can place a back order for. I looked into it, and it was less than $20 to have the title delevered. Poser is the best all around 3D application today. It's bretheren Vue D' Esprit, Bryce 5, and Carrara have similar G.U.I.s. Most where formaerly owned by Metacreations, but they've since divested. Vue and Bryce are more environment/nature generators, and carrara is a modeler. The beauty of these apps. is that that you don't need to dip into the equity on your home to purchase them. Each can be had for a few hundred dollars. When you get more professional/Hollywood bound you can think about modelers like; Maya($15,000,) Lightwave($10,000) 3D Studio Max($5,000.) But by then who knows where the much more user friendly apps. will be by then. = )

Just how powerful are we talking for requirements to run Poseur4 or P5? I doubt I'll be in trouble, but thought I'd ask. How difficult is it to get started with basic animation? I'm talking just like walking around the room and such. I havent been able to look around much (military overseas, limited Net access), how much does P4 with pro pack and Poseur 5 cost? I figure a few hundered which is fine by me. How much versatiliy can you get with the base programs (respectively) for different model types? I.E body types or even styles of animation, like to make a "real" character compared to an "Jap-Animation" style? It's nice to see such a helpful forum, right now my only link to info on this subject, thanks to everyone for answering my questions. A few months and you'll see my crude first works up on the boards! J

500Mgz is the min for P5, though I've been running on a Celeron 400 for a couple weeks now. It's really not so much the processor as fussy time. Basic stuff comes "Pre-Fab." If you're content with them things are sometimes easyer. A few hundred is good for P5, or it will be by the next sale I bet. The Firefly renderer is what comes with P5. In and of itself it is not a shabby peice of technology. ALOT depends on the time you've invested "Illuminating" a scene with native light tools, as well as other elements in any 3D scene wich effect final renders i.e. texture, bump, and/or transparency maps, and base color. Allhough not many render engines come with "Styleizing plugins..."