I'm not sure I want to move up to Poser 5 since I new and all, but from what I've heard its pretty cool. Does anyone know where I can find a demo? Also any feedback on whether or not its worth it would be interesting as well. Thanks, Kelly

I don't know where you'd get a demo unless curious labs have one on their web site. I went straight into P5 about a year ago having never done any 3D work before. It's a monster programme with lots to learn but at the same time it's easy to get into and well worth it. Check out my gallery, I've left my very first images (last page) to compare with what I do now (1st page). I learn something new every day and there's lot's of good people here who will help if you get stuck (SVDL, B_peacock, paco, Dr geep, etc.. Bite the bullet and buy it and then kiss the rest of your life goodbye; It really is "THAT" addictive.

There is no such animal as a P5 demo. As far as if it's worth it, yes, definitely. At the most basic level, the libraries are a lot better, in that they allow multiple levels and no limit to the amount of folders in there. Firefly rendering is far better than the P4 renderer and the materials room will give you an awesome amount of options. Finally, Poser has true reflections and refraction, so you can make realistic mirrors, metals, water and just about anything else that's reflective. There's also Displacement mapping (think bump maps on steroids) which is incredibly useful for getting a lot of detail a low poly object. For example, you can make a single polygon look like a grass lawn. Stability wise, it seems somewhat better than P4/PP and doesn't leak memory as much. Yes, there is still a memory leak but it doesn't seem as bad. Speed is maybe a fraction slower than P4/PP but not generally noticeable. Highly recommended, in my book; AFAIK there's nothing comes close in the price/performance range.

Kelly, You can use P5 as a "better" P4 (or P3 for that matter), most of the interface is still much the same. (I went straight from P3 to P5 with little difficulty.) Although it DOES require more system resources, it's greedy for them! If you can afford it and have a reasonably good machine (a minimum of 256 meg memory, preferably more! - and LOTs of hard-drive room for all the freebies that you'll end up downloading..) I'd say go for it. You don't have to learn all the additional bits immediately. In fact it's proably better not to. As a plan of action (and you don't need P5 for this) I would suggest: - Think of poser as a theatre, or a photographer's studio. - Get happy and confident with posing characters so they look natural (it takes quite some practice, especially with the hands). - Learn the lighting techniques. Lighting can change the appearance of a scene dramatically, and is not always easy to achieve. PS to this: in P5 (I don't know about previous versions), you can call up a "shadow cam" to look through; this gives you a view as if looking from the light itself. It helps a lot with positioning lights. - Get to grips with creating the environment for your characters using props, background photos and/or textures on walls. (There are LOADS of pre-created environments and props in the free-stuff, and searching the web will turn up hundreds (if not thousands) more, very often free. The above are the basics (it's the equivalent of learning to play the scales on a musical instrument). Once you are satisfied with your skills there, it's time to start experimenting:-)) And the fun really starts. And family life goes out of the window.... ... as you get to grips with the hair room, the cloth room, the materials room.. all good P5 fun places to play in:-)) Cheers, and good luck, Diolma

i started learning about a year ago, and only use p5. i agree is a massive program, but well worth it =)