With Poser 5 comes Don and Judy, who from MY perspective as a new user are quite useable -- but there's a LOT of talk about Vickie and Mike in here. They are supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread, but as I understand it they are Poser 4 figures. Now, does anyone know how Don, Judy, Mike and Vickie compare to each other? I've included a few different examples of 'Don' variants. They're just rendered almost as is, without much thought or intent in the pictures. They're just examples.

Here's another one...

Here's a third. Sorry about the big blue blotch, but I usually stamp pictures I send out with my name and email address -- and this was the only render I had (I don't want to rerender it right now).

So, you who have both sets -- how do they compare? Should I go out and buy Mike and Vickie as well?

Most of us have both sets. Don is quite useable and I hardly ever use Mike. Dunno what to say there. Judy on the other hand, needs work. I use Victoria Lo Res mostly. Sometimes I use V3 but rarely because its such a resource hog. Body shapes are different. If you want the slender model look, go for one of the Vicky models. If you want an older more realistic look, Judy is ok for that. Judy has a flat face that is difficult to change. The Judy/Don models work with the face room which can result in some interesting effects. They will take Vicky/Mike textures which is good. There is a limited amount of clothing for Judy/Don and contrary to popular belief, not everything can be clothified for them. I'm able to get Don faces that I like better than Mike. And I'm able to get Victoria faces that I like way better than Judy. I think the new mimic works better with Mike/Victoria. However, I have a test animation up with Judy and Mimic 1 which isn't all that bad for a first attempt. I'll put up a page with all the models in an hour or so.

Vicky and Mike work very well in Poser 5. Vicky 3 is more of a problem because she is so resource sucking, but you can start her in Poser 4 and bring her into Poser 5 successfully. Not everyone agrees, but I think a combination of all the characters is better than depending on any one...they each have their uses.

Don is extremly limited to me. He has far fewer morphs, his muscle groups and control are crap compared to Mike 2. Mike comes with different morphs for all major muscles, he poses easier, and his musculature is much more human looking and less sharp. Don is a reworked Dork (P4 character). He can be made to look acceptable, and his face has potential. He is face room complient while Mike isn't. His body is awful. Mike works just fine in P5. The only thing that doesn't work is the face room, and the face room is pretty lame anyway (one of those P5 features that really need a rework). There's tons of clothing for Mike, and very little for Don. Mike is the standard for male Poser figures. M3 should be out in the next 3 to 4 months. See the notes about V2 and V3 below on what to expect. Eric is definitly in the minority in prefering Don to Mike. Most of us who are heavy male figure posers use Mike. Vicky comes in two main flavors, V2 and V3. V2 is the same level as Mike, V3 is much higher in resolution and has lots more potential. This potential comes with a price, she has a much higher overhead. 1 V3 figure is about all I can get to work at a time in P5. I can usually get 3 V2's. Their textures are not compatable, although you can purchase a texture converter that works great (at Daz, home of Mike and Vicky). V2 has more cloths than Barbie, and more shoes tham Imelda. She's the current standard for female figures. V3 is coming up fast though. Everyone seems to be making cloths for her, and there are ways of making V2 clothing fit her with tweaking. I'm a lot less familiar with V2 and V3 than I am with Mike. I primarily pose male figures, and do clothing mostly for them (modeling). I have 5 or 6 freebie packages for Mike posted here (Stud Mike sets and teh Imagination Gown). Mike and Vicky work with all aspects of P5 except the face room with no problems whatsoever. Don't let the P5 compatable stop you. Warning though! Getting Mike and/or a Vicky opens your wallet, and it'll never get shut again. There's so much neat stuff for them, and their what modelers and texturers produce for. I don't think I've ever seen a Don clothing set for sale, and d*mn few for Judy.

Attached Link: http://www.annsartgallery.com/poser.html

Ok, everyone has different experiences. Here's my experimentation with the different models. I don't have mike up there just yet, but will work on it.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/gallery.ez?ByArtist=Yes&Artist=Dave%2DSo

Wow Eric..those Judy pics look great...are they Judy :) As to the original question...I have them all...usually Vic3 for my current females as she is so versatile, especially her face...1000 different faces..or more :) If you check my gallery here..all the current portraits are Vic3...check "Natural" then "Sweet Adiline"..spectrum city with this character and everything in betweem http://www.renderosity.com/gallery.ez?ByArtist=Yes&Artist=Dave%2DSo Mike2 for the men...waiting on Mike 3, but the little tidbit on DAZ newletter has me wondering about him...looks kinda weird or alien in the face, but maybe he will be way adjustable like V3 I have P5 , but have not used Don or Judy...Judy just gives me the willies...although Eric's images of her look really good.

Those images are excellent, dave-so! :-) I think pictures of blemish-free, perfect people tend to be very boring since there's a suspension-of-disbelief problem with them (which is important in CG, imho). Yours are very human.

Judy's fine for me. I find the expressions a little tough to handle, but creating new characters is a lot easier with the face room than with morph dials IMHO.

I like Judy.She is so different,and with the face room you can have great results.However she need more morphs. Here is a morph using only the face room. It's great that she can take V2 maps too,There are so many free and some of them are realy good! I wish she had upper eyebrows thgough!this is a problem,can't understand why they didn't make her this way...

And a don morph... I like don but as pdxjims said his body is to sharp... However till M3 we have only Dork,Mike2 & Don...

I think that Don and Judy may have potential, but looking at them out of the box just puts me off. I really think that Daz has it hands down for state of the art poser figures, props, clothing, and accessories--but it can become a costly hobby quite quickly. I only own Micheal and Micheal 2 and Stephanie, I don't have a Victoria yet, but I rarely use females in my pictures. I expect that Micheal and Victoria 3 will work much more efficeintly in Daz Studio when it finally arrives--but I've never had trouble using Micheal 2 in either P4 or P5.

What's so funny about it is that Dork and Posette needed gobs of work 'out of the box' as well. The difference was that they actually got it. Trav's morphs, Catherina's and Syyd's textures, several clothes makers who I can't remember without digging out Archive CD 019... : Far too many people to name. I've been playing with Judy in an animation project I'm probably way in over my head with, and I've been finding her a nice little mesh to use. Just on a lark, I've tried the BVH files I've downloaded, and Judy is better behaved on many of them than any iteration of Vicky has been (as in her body proportions are apparently closer to the mocapped actor, so there is less distortion at extreme ranges). None of the kiddies are really 'go' out of the box....unless you want clued viewers going 'Oh, That's a stock VickyJudyWhatever!'

I guess that the P4 people actually pre-dated Micheal and Victoria so that they they actually motivated people to work on them more. I don't think that the first generation of Micheal and Victoria had as much to offer either, but they had morphs that Dork and Posette couldn't touch. I comment you dedicated native Poser people users, you have to really love these "black sheep" to put as much love into them as you do.