Hello~~I would like to know the best place to buy Poser 5 and any other info one might have. Also, can someone please be so kind as to guide me to the best tutorials for poser for a newbie. Thanks again.

Welcome, I would but P5 directly from Curiouss Labs since it financially supports them the most. Start with any of the Poser Tutorials here if you are brginning. Many of the P5 specific tutorials are for advanced stuff. What level of info are you looking for?

The best place to buy is from the factory: curiouslabs.com Might be cheaper prices elsewhere, but you'll be safer in terms of registration, serial numbers, etc. by sticking with CL. Best place to start for tutorials is right here. Just ask questions as you go along; somebody will answer.

Anton, ockham, thank you both. I am very excited about learning just the basics. I was crusing through this site and there is soooooooo much information. One thing I am not sure about.......and my apologies for the dumb question....but does Poser work independently.......I see Poser referring to Photoshop and other graphic programs.

Poser does work independently but people sell toys that work in it. The other progtams are either used by artists to poaint over their renders to enhance them, or by people who want to make stuff for Poser. You need modelling software to make your own models for Poser. Poser is not a Modelling program. www.wings3d.com has an incredible free modeller many use.

But you don't have to have a modelling program. You can get plenty of models free for poser from free stuff here and other places on the net. Love esther PS welcome.

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I've started a couple of threads called Notes for a Newbie to help a friend of mine get started. (I've been asked to make them into real tutorials so that they don't get buried, but that means reformatting and rewriting, and I haven't gotten around to it.) Since we have so many real experts here, I'm filling in the outside around the corner stuff, such as asset management. For basics on how to find your way around the interface and use the tools, search for "geep". Dr Geep's primers are major time-savers and he uses lots of pictures and humor to make the information clear and fun to learn. For specific questions, don't just put "helllllp, pleeeeese" in the thread title. Mention *what* you need help with so that the right experts see it: "how do I inject morphs?" "how do you get shadows to render on the ground?" "Her hair vanished... what happened?" are the type of thread subjects which get answered appropriately by the people who understand morphs, lighting, joints, and IK. Get Poser 5 and play with it for a while. Look at the galleries to see what can be done. Browze over the free-stuff areas and the stores to see what extra materials are available for when you want them. THEN determine what sort of pictures you want to make and start accumulating the figures, clothes, and props for that imagery. Example: if you are going for the manga look you'd want all the anime characters and the toon-shading tuorials, but would ignore the exactly-scaled structures and photorealistic textures. If you are doing pinups, then you'd want the textures and all the lingerie you can find. If you are recreating civil war scenes, you'd want period buildings and props and clothes, and anime dollies are of no use. Don't spend money on stuff you will never use and don't waste bandwidth for those freestuff providers. However, if it *does* look like something you will want, then it is usually a good idea to get it, because sites do go under and people do leave the community. Being under deadline is no time to go hunting for a prop you thought you saw 3 years ago! Carolly

Don't spend money on stuff you will never use and don't waste bandwidth for those freestuff providers. However, if it does look like something you will want, then it is usually a good idea to get it, because sites do go under and people do leave the community. Being under deadline is no time to go hunting for a prop you thought you saw 3 years ago! Hehe yeah. I don't PLAN to leave and my site will stay up for at least one more year G I just paid another yearly fee for it so there's some props and stuff for free. Anyway... very soon you will probably find yourself buing stuff you'll probably never use just becourse of the "wow cool" factor ;o) - if not, then you're made of special material ;o) Poser is a fun hobby but it can very very quickly become a very expensive one too. If you start out with Poser 5, I will advise you to go to the Market Place here and get Morphin Mindy for P5's Judy. It greatly enhances her looks, whic are, out of the box, "less than optimal" (in plain she's UGLY). Also remember that you can use any TEXTURE for Victoria 1/2 and Mike 1/2 on the Poser 5 people Judy and Don, and there's quite a lot out there for free or very cheap. Don and Judy can't use Mike and Vickies CLOTHES though, but there is a fairly large collection of clothes included, to get you started :o)

There's also update packages from RuntimeDNA at curiouslabs.com for the P5 people which will greatly expand what comes with P5 out the box. I'm quite new to all this myself and have found that most times folks here are very helpful with any questions you may have. You can also learn a lot by just reading what others have written about their problems. 8) Catlin

Anton and Ockham: I'm curious about why you think buying from CL is any different than buying from some other authorized provider (e.g. Amazon.com). What's up with that? Why would someone spend $219.00 (boxed Win version) to buy the same package they can get for $189.99 USD at Amazon? Do you not get the same amount of support when buying from someone else? Just courious, Jack

I suspect they just meant that, since CL's financial stability is crucial to this community, if you WERE feeling somewhat supportive, buying direct just means they don't split half (?) the retail price with anyone.

Product support is indeed the same (as long as CL is around to provide it).

I usually buy directly from the developer because they immediately have my serial number (I've been verrrrry slow about mailing them in, if ever), and the time I need customer service or handholding is often immediately, too. (My Mac is a working machine and it is not connected to the Internet, so serial numbers have to go via post.) Example, I upgraded PhotoShop 4 to PS6 on the Mac. Did the disk-swapping bit to get the upgrade installed and working. No go. Swapped a few more times. No go. But there was a note saying to call aparticular number if there were installation troubles, and the nice lady on the line knew immediately that I was a proper customer of long standing (I'm on a separate upgrade path for the PC, so there have been many purchases over the last decade) and walked me through the workaround upgrade process. Sure, I could have saved a few bucks going through Amazon or MacMall, but getting service would have been delayed.... Carolly