1- Are there any 'typical newb mistakes' or pitfalls I should be wary of while attempting to learn the software? Oh, yes. Lot's of newb mistakes can be made. Two I've made are that stupid double clicking of icons. When you have a female character loaded and double click the shirt...the shirt appears and girl disappears. Use the check marks at the bottom of the menu. Also, Dynamic hair doesn't seem to want to render in anything but Poser. 2- What add-ons would you recommend given my planned use for the software? Daz. Go to Daz and look at the store. They have great sci fi stuff and even have some wonderful models. Vicky3 and Mike3 are pretty popular. They are Amazon size if you ask me so I use Stephanie Petite 3 and David 3. You can find free stuff and pay stuff for them all over, including here. Also, you may want to look into buying some architecture sets. I do mostly outside scenes so I got Cyclorama at Daz. I like it but you need to look around as there are lots out there for doing cities. 3- Is it possible, or are there any availible distributed computing rendering solutions compatible with Poser? (I have a buddy with a small rendering farm he uses for Maya) I use Bryce 4 sometimes to render but a lot of the time I just use Poser. I've not had any problems so far. 4- Any other advice for a new user? Get a credit card. It's gonna cost ya! I'm about ready to submit my order for $150 worth of models and crap that I need for various reasons.