"Since materials in P5/P6 are animatable, and an animated material produces a value parameter dial on the figure, would it be possible to do Joint Controlled Materials? In that case, Joint Controlled Morphs could be replaced/augmented by Joint Controlled displacement - and some other things too, since skin stretched taut over bones (bent elbows, knuckles) looks different from looser skin due to the displacement of blood." this is entirely possible within Poser,I've slowly been playing with the idea after hearing Stewer mention it a while ago & after seeing the animated displacement in messiah. I'm using easy pose underground to set up the dials..but it's just a case of making the material animatable in poser then saving the figure..each animatable material now has its own group that you can slave to whatever dial you want though like Max says there is the 8bit issue :

Cg Society Portfolio