OK, beginner here... When trying to add a ball in the hand of the figure, it says to use the translate palette to determine where to place the ball.. I can't seem to get the ball in the hand, lol. Any suggestions for you patient souls? Poser 5, by the way..

Especially in Poser 5, it's probably easiest to just grab the ball and move it. In the "editing tools", click on the cross-shaped icon to make the mouse move things straight. (The default is the curly-shaped icon, which rotates things; I have no idea why this is the starting point.) Then just grab the ball with the mouse (click and hold) and move it around. Be sure to check from several camera angles; it's entirely possible to have the ball in a location that looks right from the front but turns out to be way off when seen from another angle. For precise movements, you have to double-click on the ball to bring up the parameters palette; then select the "parameters" tab; then slide the xTran, yTran and zTran dials to move the ball.

'The default is the curly-shaped icon, which rotates things; I have no idea why this is the starting point' LOL, ockham. I've always hated that smegging Rotate tool. The first thing I do when I open poser is press T for the Move tool (Yeah... every 5 year-old knows that T stands for Move. I mean, Translate? Could they have been any more confusing?). Not that I use it. It's just the least offensive-looking tool in the palette. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Poser 5 seems to open for me with the Move tool. I don't know if this is the default or just because it's the last tool I used. mac

Once u parent the ball to the hand, it move will in a really weird way if u want to move it again. I mean it will not move along the x,y,z axis properly. So if you want to change the ball ie from Rhand to Lhand, first reparent it to GROUND, and then to Lhand when you are done.

OK, lol, I have "the ball rollin" now.. One last item, what are the must have figures and or add ons that really extend the artistic ability / quality? I have done print and web graphics for alot of years, but this 3D rendering is new to me. Thanks:)

Attached Link: http://www.daz3d.com

Victoria 3 with the face and body morph packs will get you in the area with a good, high quality female figure. Good textures are a must, too. Look out for Morris, Tamela, StefyZZ and Ilona, to name but a few good texture/character creators. Quarker makes great hair, so does Neftis, but some of Neftis' hair doesn't render in P5. BATLAB makes great clothes, but they're not everyday stuff. PhilC makes first class clothes for V3, and they're usually on sale at a really silly price for a short period. A subscription to PoserWorld will get you more content than you can shake a stick at, and a subscription to Platinum Club at DAZ will get you some huge savings on their content. DAZ are also the makers of Victoria (1, 2 and 3), and they have a lot more high quality models at their site. Well worth checking out.

Most props are designed to load at or near the UNIVERSE origen. Somtimes you want to place a prop near a figure but the figure is a long way from the origen, and the origen is outside the cameras view, you can use Copy and Paste from the edit menu to paste the coordinates from the figure into the prop, the prop will then move to the same position as the figure. Which actors coordinates to copy depends on wether the figure was moved by translating the BODY or the hip. Why is the rotate tool the default? Because it is usually the best tool for posing figures, generally you need to rotate joints, not translate actors.