Attached Link: http://www.keindesign.de/stefan/poser/firefaq.html

Forget about gMax - it won't export nor import any file format that'd be useful for Poser. At least that's what it did last time I tried it. I heard good things about Wings3D and Anim8or but don't have any personal exerience with them. Cinema4D is IME comarably easy to learn for beginners and the mesh editing features of the CE edition you have are IMO adequate for modeling Poser props, clothing, moprhs or figures. One of my favourite mesh modeling apps is Blender, which is free, but it is not easy to learn for a beginner. About the rendering: I have never ever used Bryce, so I can't make any comment on it. It is supposed to be a decent renderer, from what I hear. When you start playing with the Poser 5 renderer, I'd recommend having the link to my FireFly FAQ nearby. You are likely to bump into a couple of questions that should be answered on my web page.