I'm a relative beginner too but fortunately I started with Poser 3. I got to work out my frustrations on that program, wondering how everyone was posting all these awesome pics and my ppl wound up looking like pretzels, all twisted up. My advice would be to read any tutorials that are offered, even if they seem to simple at first. I found all my info online and I'm sort of a half-assed Poser user now! (nothing I'm proud enough of to post, though). Also, if you encounter a problem with a specific product offered here (or even any other store) definitely post a question on this forum. The people here get back to you sometimes within an hour. A really great community! Oh, and also I'd say that the key to enjoying Poser (for me anyhow) really is the accesories you can get once you learn a little about the program. Pre-made poses and morphs can REALLY make your work shine and cut down on the time you have to spend moving all the little dials and switches and stuff. I was dissappointed with what I got with regular Poser 4, some generic characters and clothes mainly, and it wasn't till I started shopping at Renderosity and a few other stores that I started being happy with what I could do with Poser. I'd suggest getting Michael, Victoria and the millenium kids to start, and then buy the unique character textures and clothes here. Those characters are a must-have for Poser and are really sort of "standard" for the more realistic clothes/hair/accesories. I'm not trying to plug any particular site or make you spend a lot of cash, but I just want to emphasize that I probably would have lost interest in Poser early on if not for the cool stuff I bought to really sort of put together artwork that I really enjoyed.