I read a thread that some said, "I'm to old to learn a new version." How old do you have to be before you quit learning. I just turned 45. I never touched a computer till about 2 years or so ago. I got on the internet the next day and that night, my first surf, the cat jumped on the keyboard and some how I ended up here. Strange but true. So you can blame the cat. I had poser4 in one week. Bought through Daz to get voucher to use on Vic and clothing pack. I havn't looked back. Now I'm using P5, I make all my props in Wings with UVMapper Pro, and I use PSP8.1 instead of Gimp now. I can't forget all the great tutorials like Geep and the likes. So how old do you have to be before your to old to learn? Am I past my prime? I don't think so. I had an old friend that always told me. "The more you know, the more you realize you don't know. Just a thought. What do you think.

I've used Poser since August 2000. I didn't have an Internet connection until July 2001, and drifted here shortly afterward. My first computer was an Atari 1200XL. I was 800 at the time. I still have a functional version of this machine, although it isn't the original that I purchased back in 1982. The day I stop learning will be the day I die.

You're never too old to learn unless you think you are. I started in computer graphics in 1982. I started with P4PP about 2 years ago and I started with P5 about 3 months ago. If I ever get the time I will get to grips with Maya. I started teaching myself around the same time as I got into Poser, but had to quit when I left the company I was working for. Age? I'll be 45 in April.

40 yrs old, started using P4 a little over a year ago. Originally joined R'osity to look at an image someone linked to in a Yahoo! group, been here ever since. My computer experience began with my dad's Apple II-E, $3,000 worth of computer, state of the art floppy drive (remember when floppy disks actually were floppy?) and you had to program it to do -anything-. My first project was a graphic skull with flashing eyes, written out line by line in apple basic. If I could learn that, how hard could P5 be?

I've been using computers since I was 13 almost 23 yrs ago (damn where has all that time got to?) I've been playing with Poser on & off for about 5 yrs now since getting a freebie of poser1 with a PCFormat.

I just turned 50. Started with an XT 4 mhz with a turbo button....hoot! Took it apart, put in some ram and a 40 meg hd, of which I could only use 31 megs due to it using Dos 3.1 Been building my own ever since. Fell in love with computers when I used to watch Lost in Space as a kid. My major malfunction is taking the time to learn one thing, my brain assures me it can handle 32 programs at the same time but I have my doubts...lol Got Poser 1, upgraded to Poser 2 for $10 the cost of shipping and handling, skipped Poser 3 and moved up to Poser 4 and the Pro Pack then Poser 5 when it came out. No, you really are never too old to learn, but I find I get impatient more easily now. Marque

First computer HMMM? about 12, 35 now(don't make me do the math it's too early) Poser for about 3 years. Of all the media I have worked with over the years from hairy sticks with pigment,pen and ink, to all kinds of sculpture. This has been the closest to geting the pictures in my head out in the real world!

I've been using Poser now for close to 1 year and been using computers since I was about 23, I'm now 43. I started on a Commodore 64 & went to school for computer programming. Back then it was Cobol, which by the time I graduated was obsolete. Secondly, you are NEVER too old to learn anything, it just may take longer LOL. I think the more you learn & do as we age it tends to keep the mind alert, possibly staving off brain dibilating diseases so to speak. As a matter of fact someone posted a wonderful pic in the VUE forum & he was 70 years old & has his own graphics website. I'd rather sit here in front of my puter doing "art" and learning then gaping at a TV 24/7. Hopefully by the time retirement age comes along, I'll be proficient enough with all this to supplement my income.

Lil' Dragon, you were 800 when you started with computers? I am VERY impressed!! My first computer experience was with a hole punch and a two foot thick stack of cards trying to figure out how to get that box in the sterile room (which was the size of a REAL car, not one of these new ones) to add 2 + 2 and come out with 4. My first PC was a Commodore 64 with tape drive, and eventually the floppy drive. I purchased it at the university bookstore and was one of the first dozen folks here to own their own computer. I've been using Poser for about three years now. I was working for the campus webmaster who had a degree in computer graphics and one day he said "here, try this..." and I've been addicted ever since. Oh, and I turn 50 this year...not so venerable as Lil' Dragon, but I've seen computers develop from the original building-sized to the new pocket-sized. It still amazes me that we went to the moon and back on less computing power that my first Commodore!

41 tomorrow. First computer experience was writing a BASIC program in little boxes on a sheet of paper at school, which was then sent in to the Council's computer department for execution: unfortunately the teacher had omitted a vital step and we all received "could not execute" slips. We bought an Acorn Atom (model before the BBC micro for UK readers) soon after and I found you could make pretty pictures by drawing lines in xor mode - been a sucker for Make Art buttons ever since. Bought Poser as a cover CD upgrade in late 2000, still learning stuff (very slowly).

Bought my first computer 1980. I was 28 then. Computer had 16k memory! One had a regular tape recorder to store the programs. Tried making my first computer game on that machine. :o) I remember it was very sensitive to thunder storms even if it was miles away.
Worked with Poser since version 1. Don't remember how many years ago that was 5-6 maybe?

Tiny

I wrote my first program in fortran via puch cards cards on a PDP-1170. My first PC was a VIC 20, taught my self 6502 assembler and started to write a first Person dungeon crawl by redefining the character set to be parts of walls. Man those were the days coding assembler routines on paper at lunch and trying them out when I got home. I never finished it before the Comodore 64 came along but it was fun. Then it was the Amiga and finally I switched to the Intel based machines. I have been using poser since the first version, but it really wasn't until P4 that I really became interested in CGI. Until then it was a tool to help make people for a game I seemed to be forever writing. Never finished the game but now I'm learning 3D Animation and maybe I will finally be able to tell the stories I wanted to in games. I'm 44.

Started with a Portable my dad brought home from work. It had a modem, which back then was a cradle for putting the handset in. There was no screen, it had a thermal tape that printed onto paper like a typewriter. Someone had programmed a D&D type adventure game, and I was hooked. Got a Commodore Vic 20 and hooked it to my TV (It had 4 kilobytes RAM). Had to program anything. I remember magazines would come out with code you could type in. I programmed my own game in BASIC like Zork. Then to Commodore 64, to Amiga, the MAC, and finally to PC. Poser for 3 years. I will be 36 in March. I can only add that I live in Columbus, Ohio, home of The Ohio State University, where Charles Csuri basically invented computer graphics with a 1 million dollar grant from the government. He had played football here and went to war and came back and started doing graphics with punch cards. The grad graphics school is called ACCAD, and Mr. Csuri still works there to this day and you can see some of his original work hanging in the halls there. Some of my instructors for graphics at OSU now work at Pixar, ILM, and Pacific Data Images.

I started programing in 1974 on an IBM systems 3 main frame, no hard drives- but a card reader. LOL- back when it was fun to wright huge programs of 2k, lol. When cobal, fortran, and MS Basic were king. I remember having to make phone calls all over the world to log onto old BBS systems, but that was a few years after I started before they came into existance. Eventually I had my own. The first comp I owned at home was a timex sinclare, if anybody remembers those :) I still have an old but still working C64 in the closet.

I'll be 40 in June and agree with everyone else who says that you're never too old to learn. Heck, I just started ninpotaijutsu (blue belt) and iaido six months ago. First computer was a, gasp ;), Commodore64, back in 1987, on which I promptly started programming in BASIC, moving on to assembly. Used Amigas until Commodore went out of business and switched over to 'PCs'. Was on the internet, if you could call it that ;), in 1993. Program in C/C++, Python, and Java these days. Rarely program in assembly any more. There is a great little OS written completely in assembly that fits on a floppy disk just out. Wonder if they'll port Poser over to it? :P Tried 3D CG early on with the Amiga, but found it limited and frustrating - CG, not Amiga. :) Started with Poser about two years ago, now using it in conjunction with LW, C4D, Vue Pro, UV Mapper, and PhotoShop to create my own models, scenes, and animations. I gave my old C64 to a friend who, knowing his "pack-rat" behaviour, probably still has it in running condition somewhere in the clutter. He also has some cool 10" floppies (he has been programming in COBOL for at least twenty years).

(1) Older than dirt (2) Into computers since 1976, when I saw my first one at the home of a co-worker (he built it himself). Got my first computer in 1983 (my hubby built it), but got my first "REAL" PC in 1991, when I got into 3D graphics and animation. (3) Using Poser since version 1 (4) Still learning, never stop, love multimedia, graphics, sound, video production, you name it. If the computer can help me create it, it gets created. 8-) DON'T EVER STOP LEARNING! And it is true ... the more you learn, the more you realize you have to learn. 8-)

I'm so old I can't remember when I got my first computer or started using Poser, but here's what I can dredge up from this old brain (I'll be 54 on March 29). My first exposure to a real computer was when my sister got a PC, oh, probably around 10 years ago. I finally bought a PC at Radio Shack, with 130MB hard drive and I think about 25MB of memory, but I could be wrong. That was after going through a couple little non-PC gizmos: a TSR 80 that used the TV as a monitor and a regular old tape recorder to save onto cassettes. Then I got a word processor by Smith Corona, but it didn't do anything but word processing. Had to get the PC. How did I ever fit any programs on that 130MB hard drive? Got Poser 2 at EggHead Software on a bargain table. Someone had bought it and returned it, stating it was too complex for what they wanted (imagine that!). I got it for about 5% discount because it had been a return item, then found out that I could have gotten it cheaper at CompUSA for about $25 less. That was about maybe 5 or 6 years ago. I've had every upgrade since except P5. I still refuse to get that, but not because I'm too old to learn it. I'm just too stubborn to put out the money for it becuase of all the glitches. Discovered the on-line forums probably 4 or 5 years ago when I found Poser Form Online (PFO) and I've been through every "war" that was waged between all these forums since, ending up here at Renderosity. My Poser life in a nutshell! LOL Melanie

Let's see, we got our first computer back around 1986 or so. A tiny IBM that did little more than a simple word processing and games ( Iremember the favorite at the time had to do with putting out fires). The desk was more impressive than the computer LOL. Shortly after that I went to work in Manhattan and had to learn real stuff like MS Word and doing really simple layouts for newsletters. This wasn't so hard, but I hatted this whole DOS thing. I then discovered Apple/Mac. I bought a used portable mac that came with Pagemaker, Photoshop 3,Quark and Word perfect. No manuals so I had to figure them out myself. A few months later I had my own little desktop publishing business. We didn't get on the internet till 1996 with another mac, this time a new Preforma. I started playing with P4PP in 2001. I tend to use it more for setting models for 2D more than just straight poser work and still love my Photoshop and Mac computers. I'm 47 and still only pull out the manuals when I really don't have a clue.

My first computer graphics experience was at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, California, when I was a young kid in the early mid-1970s. My mom used to take me and my buddy Craig there. The LHS was (and probably still is) a fantastic interactive science museum for young people. They had a room where you could rent terminal time, except get this, the terminals were cleverly rigged old-fashioned typewriters connected to a mainframe, the language being BASIC. There were several programs you could play around with, like the classic role playing game "Hammurabi" (the precursor to the contemporary classic "Civilization" series,) and "Eliza," which simulated psychological counseling. You also had the option of "drawing" portraits of Abraham Lincoln or the Mona Lisa. The typewriter would type and re-type line upon line of overlapping characters, eventually creating a crude but recogniziable digital portrait. From that time on, I dreamed of more advanced computer graphics, and now, in adulthood, that dream is very accessable in reality. Craig loved the place too, and went on to achieve beautiful things in cinema effects, which I'm sure many of you have seen. He made the armature/nodal model that enabled the traditional animators to work with CG animators on "Jurassic Park," was in charge of the "Hollow Man" effects, etc. etc. So for one kid, CG became a wonderful hobby, and for the other, a spectacular career. I discovered Poser and Vue about two years ago by surfing Japanese illustration sites. Thanks for eliciting some good memories.

I get my first own "computer" Atari in 1989 with cool floppies, I was 19 years old, later another one and another one..and changed almost every year.
I Find Poser on the internet in 1996 so play almost 8 years now with almost everyday including another great software..short before Poser I was working for a Photo studio and digitally retouched photos .. this was also much fun to doing it better as manually..and as MysticMid said I too learn still everyday :) This year I am 34.. time get fast behind computer don't you think? Today I work on 2 PC Pentium 4 3.0 and after 3 months I wish it can be faster :)

Cath

I got my commodore 64 when I was a senior in hish school in 1984 ('m 37 now) and was one of the few students to have their own computer in college. man was I ever ticked that I had to book time on the school's mainframe for my programming classes. Mainframes were a thing of the past I said, but did they listen to me? nooo. I got my first 20MHz PC from a small start up company called "Gateway" I heard that because of my endorsement they have since grown a bit. Actually I got it because of my hobbies in art and graphics (I decided against the amiga, Unfortunally since I did not endorse them they floundered a bit. I hear that the internet thing also did pretty well ever since I gave Al Gore the idea.) I got poser 1 as a, get this, a referance for sketching. Man talk about a product changing in scope! Since then Ive had every version of poser - even (sigh) poser 5. I think Poser 3 was the most drastic and a "must have" upgrade. Poser 4 was "well, OK, it nice." and poser 5 was "mommie make the bad program stop!" (granted the patches have helped a LOT)

This is a fun thread! :) I am 40, and got my first computer back in '82. A brand new VIC-20. (With a 16k memory expansion card! What power!!) Ran the history gauntlet of all the pc's, including the Columbia CP/M machine that ran a BBS for many years. I discovered Poser 2 back when I did Tech support for Photoshop (V.3) and some of the others in the area were playing with it and Bryce. I have been hooked on both since then. That has to have been 6 or 7 years ago. I now teach people how to use them in class. (OK, Photoshop officially in class, but I let them play on my laptop to get them hooked on 3D design as well) Good to meet you all. Rich

You folks are encouraging, and I need it, right now! :D Nice to know there are other old fossils out there that don't suffer from advanced osteomentitis. ;) (I turned 53 yesterday, but that does not truly reflect the mileage.) I believe that when one stops learning, one is dead. Started using Poser with version 1, still have the floppies. Haven't had the time to spend on it that I'd like (too many other things to learn, too!) My first, personally owned computer was a magnesium alloy Pickett N902-ESlike the ones they did most of the work for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs on. (That's a slide rule, a.k.a. slipstick, for you youngsters. ;) My first electronic beast was a Mac SE. (Still in service with a different owner.) "The old that is strong does not wither"

Lol...I was 45 when I got my first computer. I had not been exposed to them, other then work, where they decided to go PaperLess. HA.....I have never seen them burn so much paper since then! I truly was afraid of them, computers that is.....afraid I would mess things up by doing something wrong, so I convinced my husband to buy one. My husband on the other-hand felt that "Big" brother was watching us in more ways then we care to think about, so he didn't want a computer in the house. Finally I did convince him and we got a "E" machine. I think it was 333mhz and 32Ram and only a 6 gig hard-drive! Worked great for the moment, but after buying PaintShopPro5, I realized it wasn't going to cut it for me. Since then, we all have our own computers, including my husband and all I can say to him is...........why the heck did you make me wait so long? LOL! I have been using Poser for about 3 years, still learning and have P5 but just can't quite get into it, so P4 with PP is my software of choice.....Plus Vue4. BTW.....I just turned 50 in December....and can't wait for 55!

Got my first PC in the summer of 97 - 486/66. The only thing i used it for was to run Cakewalk music software...and to play Sim City 1

I started with Poser when it came out free on the Computer Arts mag.
My "tools of the trade" are now P4, Carrara 3, Macromedia Studio MX, Photoshop 6, Cakewalk Sonar 1, FL Studio, Ableton Live 3, Sonic Foundry Acid 3, Sound Forge 6, Vegas 3; all mixed up on an Athalon 1800 and a Dual 1 ghz G4 PowerMac and a 933 iBook G4. And im not counting all the crap in the corner of the room no longer being used, just collecting dust (we all know about things like that)

Im 33.
E

My first computer was a TRS-80, back in 1982. And I started using Poser with version 1 in 1995 or '96 or whenever it was that it came out. Like most people, I originally bought it as an aid to sketching. Amazing how far it's come.

First contact with computers in high school, 1967, Fortran on punch-cards. Didn't catch the disease then; all that work and waiting for nothing but a list of numbers wasn't any fun. Returned to the digital world in 1976; built an adaptive communications device for a CP kid. The spark caught that time, but didn't really flame up until 1983 when I encountered a sound system on a PC. Making and analyzing sounds: now that's fun. Because I was working in universities, with easy access to lots of machines, didn't get around to buying my own machine till 1987, a Radio Shack XT clone. Found Poser in 2000, when I was desperately seeking a way to "spice up" my courseware; my 2D line-drawing animations just weren't getting the point across.

58 years old this coming July, whippersnapper! I've been using Poser since it first came out on a fistful of floppies, whenever that was. My first computer (after the Timex Sinclair, built from a kit) was an Apple //e in 1983, and I'm happy to say I've never owned a PeeCee, nor do I associate with anyone who does. Just kidding!

I wonder if it's something about the phrase "How old were you when...?" that brings out the older generation. I feel I'm in good company age-wise (sometimes a rare happening on Renderosity). A family friend brought over a switch-programmed machine that read back with a row of eight indicator lamps. That's the first computer I ever touched. I was definately a young one then. I was, however, savy enough about the whole concept to buy my first computer to help me do my job (being "Radar O'Reilly" for a combat engineer company). Kaypro2X, built-in green phosphor screen, two massive 800K floppy drives. Still have it and at least three years ago it still booted fine. Was writing games in BASIC and took a whack at Z80 assembly -- "Hello, World" is as advanced as I got there! Somewhere around 1986 I had managed to get a Mac Plus and was visiting a local BBS through, I think it was a 128. Took hours to download a two-inch bitmap. The built-in sound and graphics capability of the Mac got me going and I was doing what we then called "bitmapped" art all over the place. I was up to a Centris or something before I had color. Finally got dragged into Power macs (I couldn't find any decent MIDI software for the old chipset) and was able to run a Ray Dream3D demo I'd had lying around. And that was it for me. I don't think I'll ever be good at 3D, but I'm certainly gonna keep learning for as I can raise my head (and maybe a little longer). I'm only 43. I feel young this year.

Gee, 58, you got me beat, I just turned 57! I started around 1981 or so, with an Atari 400. I remember doing computer painting on a PC clone with a Super EGA card, 16 colors from a fixed palette of 64! Been playing around with Poser since Poser 2 was new, don't remember whan that was, though. Old dogs can still learn new tricks, I learn new things all the time! ;-)

Gee, no one remembers the Heathkit H-8, 8mhz processor with a max of 16kb memory? Circa 1973/4. Had to run a compiler off a tape to start it. Programs were done in Benton Harbor Extended Basic. The H-9 came with dual floppies. had to build those puppies yourself.

I think you're referring to the Altair?..;) they used it in 'war games'..to hack into the Defense dept.'s computers..;)
First computer use, running a 3278 terminal to TUCC (remote mainframe connection), typing in a Cobol program (didn't run because I thought I didn't 'need' the periods..;)No graphics, but played 'Dukedom' and 'Star Trek', text adventures..;)
First computer, and Atari 800..Star Raiders, and Atari basic..;) First real computer, Leading Edge Model D in 1985, added 128k of memory to bring it 'up' to 640 (I was so proud..;)
First homebuilt- 286 with 2 40-meg hard drives, have been 'upgrading' it ever since (actually turned into about 4 different computers at one point..;) up to the present Athelon 2k I do renders on..have an Apple LC II..80 meg drive, OS 4? 3?..;)
Got Poser with my 2001 tax return, so it must have been..oh, Spring 2002..got Bryce about the same time. Man, if I'd known how much I'd owe on 2002 taxes..but that's another story..;)
Start Linux class at the local Tech college in two weeks, doing Online-training on Win 2k at work (and paid for it..isn't Capitalism wonderful?..;) in Tech Support, you can stop learning, but they have a name for that..unemployed..;) Oh..I'll be 47 in November..;)

42, nearly, started off with a ZX81, then upgraded to a Dragon 32, then an Amiga, then bought a PC a few months before P3 came out....your never to old to learn we have a member at well into his 80s and boy he can use poser ;o)....Steve

Well once the rain had stopped and I was able to get off the Ark..... but the rest is history :)

Will be 60 in June. First (1977?)"computer" was a National Semicconductor single board computer evaluation kit which had a TTY interface and 512 bytes of Ram (I think), mione had switches for programing it (individual bits). Then to a SYM1 single board computer (6502), could program this one assembly language as opposed to macine code (o's & 1's). First appliance computer was a TRS80 model 1. Progressed to an Atari 800 and then to the Commodore 64 and finaly and Amiga 2000 (Loved it, especially Deluxe Paint). Switched to the PC world in 1991. Got into Poser, Raydream Sudio, Bryce etc in 1997 and connected to the net in 2000. I'm still learning.

Sheeeeee-it, I feel young again! All of 45 since September. First 'big tin' computer I touched was the PDP-11 at tech school in '77; before that, the first computer I played with was the first Altair 8008 (and oh, would I love to find one of those beasts again! S-100 backplane, 8816 toggle switches and LED output displays, cards you could actually build yourself....geek heaven! And all that lovely ferrite core ram that you could get surplus and kludge into the system for nonvolatile storage.... :) ). Been using Poser 4 for a couple of years, P5 from the release. FIrst box I owned my lonesome was the Laser clone of the Apple 2E, then got a 386SX-40, popped a 387 coprocessor in myself, and never bought a store made unit again (for that matter, I still have all but one of the mobo's I've owned, and that one was the Abit for the socket A Athlon....the one with the bad capacitors). And still learning.

"Luxury! Now, we had it really tough... We used to have to get out of the paper bag at 2 o'clock in the morning, clean the paper bag and lick road clean wit tongue! We used to have to go down t'mill, work 27 hours for 3/2d every four years.... and when we got home our mum and dad would kill us and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah'!!" ROTF. Sorry..... I couln't help it!! Seriously.... (and I really mean this sincerely, folks!) Ahem..... er... where was I. Oh yes, first computer was made of bamboo and rice-paper, had a huge 8 smegs of RAM and a teacup for a floppy drive, used enough electricity to power a small 3rd world country, and could only be programmed by climbing inside and banging on vacuum tubes with a hammer.... mac

Oh there's no point doing this lol - you guys have all said it already. But stop learning??????? Hell no - that excuse is used by middle-aged and older people who want to get out of something. Lame! I'm 47 and my best thing is getting into something I've never done before - scaring the hell out of myself and risking my neck. Then I HAVE to learn quick lol! Example: a customer calls and says - 'Can you do printed matter? (I've done other stuff for him previously) You know, design a nice folder for us.' And I don't even own a layout app, but I go, 'Uh yeah, sure!' And he says, 'Okay you got the job.' I go out and buy InDesign the next day and learn it FAST and a week later we're doing that folder.... and in the end the customer is very happy with the stuff when it comes back from the printers. That was scary and fun... lol! Just one example. But I never learn anything just for the learning - there has to be a point to it. I must be motivated, it must be fun or interesting in some way or other. Or absolutely necessary. I only RTFM if I HAVE to. Way back: Started with a BA degree in psychology, then got into Computer R&D, then out of that and started with music production, then multimedia, then video and Poser.... and the wilder it gets, the more I love it. And I still wonder what I'll be when I grow up. Honestly. But since I started working with music ('92) and then also with Poser ('98), the question doesn't enter my mind so often - I'm having too much fun. :] Fish

Turning 41 this year - and feeling quit young after reading this thread... ;-) "My" first computer was an Apple IIc at school, 1983 I bought a C64 with a 'Datasette'. Later came a Floppy drive. I was very proud after writing a basic programm which could rotate a wireframe cube in realtime! Later came an Amiga 2000. "Cinema 4D" on Amiga was my first contact with serious 3d-software. (Used it up until 2000 and out of curiousity managed to load a converted Vicky with it some weeks ago...) Don't remember when I switched to PC. Must been when I started to work as an IT-pro - maybe 15 years ago. Last year I bought Poser 5 after playing with a free P3 magazine version and the free p4 demo for a short time. And now I feel assimilated. Only problem so far: Poser is a "time eater". ;-)

lets see.. first time I touched a computer.. a BBC Model A, Grange Middle School Ealing. 1981. (I think tis a while back now! lol) first owned one, a Spectrum 48K+ (Timex to the US crowd) 1984. First PC.. a Sinclair PC200 in 1987.... gods was that a clunker! now, at the age of 33 I'm running a 1.2 Ahtlon... the advance's in computer tech have been massive lol first used Poser 1 about 6 months after it was released.. and sorry to say I dumped it not long after cos it could'nt do what I wanted lol... that did'nt come till Poser 4... now running Poser 4 + Propack :)

Bought my first computer in '92. Started playing with Poser in '98. (Just played computer games up to that point) Still playing with Poser in '04. I expect to still be playing with Poser (or something like it) when I die. I'm 36.

I first purchased poser 1 when it first came out, im not sure how far back that was I think it was in 93, I then purchased poser 2 in 96 and then poser 3, poser 4, and poser 5, Im 37, I think I have been working with poser 10 years.

I remember reading articles in Scientific American back in the 70's boasting the triumphs of displaying simple wireframes on screens of high-end mainframes - they were hoping to conquer the next frontier of displaying in actual perspective sometime in the next decade. Fascinating! I played with computers myself a bit during the early 80's, but it felt like trying to sprint in a 12x12 room while ankle deep in treacle. Finally got my first XT in '86 when my boss realized I wouldn't take my own time to learn his new inventory program unless I had a computer of my own at home to learn on. He owed me for considerable unpaid overtime anyway, and finally agreed to add an extra unit the office order. Within 3 weeks all the engineers were coming to me with their hardware and O/S problems - all they knew were lotus and WordStar. I dug in to learn the O/S (MS-DOS 3.11) and hardware side of things and then taught myself dBase programming. By the time the company was fully computerized they'd split my old job between 6 employees and left the whole IT department to me. Big part of my job was attending tech shows and keeping up with computer developments. I came across a short blurb in Byte about a new program by Fractal Designs that could pose digital mannequins on-screen and I was intrigued enough to call them to get on the waiting list. They didn't even have one, and I called them monthly for over a year before they's accept a pre-release order and after only 10 more months of missed release deadlines I finally had my steaming-fresh copy of Poser 1 in-hand. Fascinating! Played with it now and again thru Ver 2 and 3. When I got 4 I really started to dig into it's capabilities and spend serious time on it. By then I was a full-time independent production-artist, and found it was often a great help in visualizing and laying out my designs. I stumbled across this forum and the Poser Community thru a series of links starting on the old Zygote WebSite, and found it a comfortable place to hang out. Fascinating!

Since Poser 2, and started using computers in about 1982, on a college mainframe, LOL! I was 21 then, oh for those good ole days! ;-) Advanced to a Commodore 64 with its whooping colors and sound (a step up from my old T1000), went on to an Amiga 500 and a Tandy Coco... After which I fell in love with a Tandy 1000 and my first REAL PC. And the C64 was still faster in many things than my Pentium!

For nickedshield ... >> Gee, no one remembers the Heathkit H-8, 8mhz processor with a max of 16kb memory? Not quite that far back, but close. It was the H-89 that my hubby built in 1983-ish (if I'm remembering the year right). Yup, whopping 64K of RAM and initially you could only back up programs by cassette tape. Eventually got a 8" 130-K floppy drive, though, which I now recall cost a bundle. About the only thing I could do on it was play text adventures and research my family history. I begged him and begged him for a "real" computer for ages ... when we split in 1990 it was the first thing I bought for myself. Now my current hubby and I have wars over who is going to die with the most software. 8-) Oh yeah ... I guess I'm not quite older than dirt ... I'm 51 and loving it.

Im a relative newbie, started using a IBM PC (4.77 mHz, 64 kb RAM expanded to 376 KB) 2 5.25" floppies, 4 color CGA, DOS 3.1, in 1985 at the age of 12 (Im 30 now). Upgraded later (bout 10 yrs later) to a 486 so i could use CorelDraw, to earn some money while in medical scool. Found Poser about 2 years ago, while searching for 3D graphics programs to spice up my presentations while in residency. And i've been hooked since. By the way... i haven't found a cure for Poser addiction.

We had our first computer built (an Apple clone) in the 70s. The kids played some pretty crappy games on it and I used it for typing letters. Bought the first Poser when it came out and never looked back. I've been sitting in front of the computer ever since ;-) And, oh yeah, I'm 57.

I bought my first computer in l980 with graphics in mind but there was nothing available much better than Windows Paint. Progressed through Fauve Matisse, PSP, Painter, Photoshop, grabbing Poser 1 when it first came out as an illustration aid. I was aiming to be the Grandma Moses of Computer Graphics. Nah, you're not too old, I think I'm the oldie here...on the shady side of 68.

This is a really cool thread! Some of the history listed here I can relate to (even if I'm a whippersnapper! - 34). I discovered Poser in a rather crude manner. Back in 2001 I was surfing the net for 'girlie-pics' and found some 3D porn renders. The gallery mentioned using Poser and after getting it 2 months later (P4), been hooked ever since! My first computer was the C64 w/tape drive back in 1984 (anybody remember Ahoy! magazine). A lightning storm blew it up in 1988 and I lost touch with computers until 1998 - missed out on a lot:( I banged around with a Dell 486 50Mhz until I got a Gateway P2 350Mhz in 2001(thanks for the endorsements LordNak). I just got the ProPack and am STILL getting used to it's slower speed. I'll probably wait for Poser6 since my present comp won't run P5. I also use APS 7, AfterEffects 5, Premiere 6, UVMapper(Cox freebie) and Anim80r. Still tinkering with Wings. I also make soundtrack and electronic powernoise using Reason 2.1, MusicMaker 6, Dance eJay 2 and FruityLoops 3. I could talk for hours about this! Suffice to say here lately, I can't seem to learn enough! Your NEVER too old to learn - my Dad is 70 and a MSExcel wizard (just can't convince him to try Photoshop). He recently finished putting all of his old 10inch 78rpm records onto CD, something he had no clue how to do 8 months ago. I feel for those that stop learning and sad to say, there's quite a large number of folks like that. By the way, my Mom used to work on the UNIVAC back in the mid-50s. Anybody remember THAT old machine?

Well, lets see... hmmmm... yes I am not as old as some of the people here. Being only 22, I still must agree that we are never to old to continue learning. The day I stop learning is the day I die. I have been using computers since I was 5 years old (started with Apple IIe) and got hooked pretty easy. Graduated to a 486 DX with 16 MB RAM (back when it cost $500 for 8 MB) and a 320 MB HD. Wow what a power horse!!! Than I got a 166 Pentium MMX. And now I am constantly buying, building, and upgrading machines constantly. My home box consists of a 1.8 GHz AMD XP+ with 512 MB RAM. But my all time joy is my render cluster at the college. It consists of four Pentium 3 600 MHz boxes (256 MB RAM each), one 1.8 GHz AMD box (1 GB RAM), and one 3.0 Pentium 4 GHz box (2 GB RAM). With all of these boxes working together they make short work of render scenes (as long as they are not Poser!) done with WorldBuilder. I would not even want to think of how long it would take to render even one single scene on one of those old computers that everyone here is talking about...

46, started with Amiga 500+ 1Mb build memory about -88, Poser4 since 6 years ago. Now PC Athlon 2000+ 1GB RAM, Xp pro