Hello Grant, Welcome! Just looked into your galley. Impressive work for a "newbie", most people need much more time to find out about lights! Well, to answer some of your questions: 1) You're right. When a new set by a popular merchant is released in the marketplace, you'll find lots and lots and lots of renders of that set. Try not to fall for the "me too" effect, you'll find that Poser is a very expensive hobby that way! Think about what you need for your renders, look in the freebies section for it, and purchase only what you can't find in freebies, or else you'll go broke in no time flat. 2) I don't know what most people do, but I usually render Firefly, 1600x1200 px, 3-5 pixel samples (the more samples, the softer the render gets), displacement bounds at 5, maximum texture resolution 1024, post filter size 1-2, box type. Bucket size usually at 16. The render settings depend on the type of image you render. Especially maximum texture size: if you do closeups, you'll have to up the maximum texture size, if you do full body or multiple character scenes, 1024 is good enough. 3) As for the P5 manual, most of us agree, it isn't very good. But if you want tutorials, there is one name you absolutely have to remember: Dr. Geep. Search for "geep" and you'll find a wealth of very clear tutorials on just about anything that's related to Poser. 4) Best way to become an active member? Keep on doing what you're doing now: post questions, upload images to your gallery. You'll find that the Poser community is very helpful. You'll learn - pretty fast, judging by your gallery - and within a couple of weeks you'll be able to answer questins too. 5) Sorry, can't help you there, I'm Dutch. Again, welcome! Steven.

The pen is mightier than the sword. But if you literally want to have some impact, use a typewriter

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