I have had Poser 6 since probably about April. I have now gotten to a point where I have done all I can and am not sure which way to turn. Now don't get me wrong, I don't even know half of what the program can do but I have learned enough to create suitable images (examples can be found at http://emanaia.deviantart.com/gallery/). What I would like to do now is create figures who's skin textures, specifically the premade ones I am using at this point, look more realistic or photo-like,(like this example from another artist http://www.deviantart.com/view/21630455/) if that makes sense. I have tried working in the material room with the bump files, thinking that might help but have had no success. Other than getting a new program like Bryce or some other to work in conjunction with Poser 6, what can I do in Poser to make my characters look more life like, especially in the face?
Thanks in advance for any help! :)

"Other than getting a new program like Bryce or some other to work in conjunction with Poser 6, what can I do in Poser to make my characters look more life like, especially in the face?" You certainly don't need Bryce, or anything else really. I would start at the most logical point... the facial expressions. Make sure you use expressions (especially on the mouth and eyes) that represent emotion of some kind. Never rely on pre-packaged "expression packs" that you may find in free stuff or the marketplace as a final result. Experiment on your own, and remember to account for some level of asymmetry, which is VERY important if you want to avoid the "android" or "mannequin" look. ;-) Eyes are the single most important feature on the face to make it look convincing, so spend a lot of time on them. As far as textures are concerned, there's plenty of photorealistic textures here in the marketplace that do a decent job, but without a good material structure, even the best ones will fall flat. Look into possibly investing in the "Skin Realism" kits by Face_Off. Sure, you can spend months tweaking your own shader system to simulate effects like SSS, etc., but his scripts provide the best results I've seen so far. After materials, lighting is definitely key. It might even be the single most important aspect to realism overall. I do a lot of my works with IBL/AO in P6, which helps bring out all the details and richness of your realistic textures, but it's not a requirement for realism. Learning how to build a good light rig is an art in itself. You can use pre-made ones, but there's no replacement for knowing how to set up lights yourself, and knowing how the work. Hope this helps. Good luck.

heard of 'split morphs'? i just recently discovered them myself w a little help from here :) and check out my homepage i have a link there to my art page. with one tut on skin bump . more to come, and just ask if u get stuck.: bthw, the poser 4 rendering is very good in p6 than it was in p5 i think :) and increase the 'bucket' size to say 165. hope it helps! :)

Thank you SO much for your advice! I will definitely look into that kit. I also need to look more into the whole lighting thing as well. There is so much more I need to learn about this program :)

Thank you grylin! I will take a look at all of that! :)

Another vote for face_off's real skin shader and similar products. W/o them, my V3 renders looked like plastic mannequins. W/ his stuff, they're much closer to photos.

Thank you! Yeah I found another similar one that I may invest in called "HyperREAL" which works with V3 as well as Aiko3 I believe. From what I see, the plus of this one is that it comes with textures, make-up options, eye colors and some light settings, whereas the other doesn't. I'm still deciding. :)