My personal problem with Poser is the "drudge factor." If I paint in acrylics I spend hours moving a brush -- but every brush stroke gives of it's individual character and nuance to the final painting. If I do 3d, I spend hours moving a mouse -- but no matter how deftly or sensitively I move the mouse, only the final position of the polygons appears in the resulting artwork. The complaint that artists, particularly 3d artists, have with Poser is how easy it may be to fake creativity. The viewer questions if what they are responding to emotionally comes from the artist who's signature is on the work, or a content creator or programmer behind them. It might help to look at Poser work as more collaborative art. One can admire a magnificant 'cello performance without asking if the player composed it themselves. One can enjoy all the aspects of a play, dispite the fact that the story and words already existed before the show was cast or the sets designed. I DO find that many Poser creators, especially beginning creators, are seduced by the beauty of the pre-made parts. That's why so many take am unmodified Vickie, slap a texture on her, then render. Until reality sinks in they feel as if their own efforts have made this complex bit of near-realism come to life; they feel an actual joy of "creation." The same happens when you lift a consumer camera at one of the observation platforms at the Grand Canyon; for a moment you feel as if you have personally contributed towards what will appear in that final print. Yes, you have, but not to the extent you might feel at first. Later, as the Poser user desires to express themselves more uniquely, they get into the tweaky, twiddly stuff. And there is where Poser smacks you a second time; 3d is such a complex, time-consuming act, one is always drawn (if not forced) to compromise. Sure, my inner vision said an old African woman looking out over the Serengiti -- but the morphs would take too long, Vickie won't even morph that way, my attempts at painting a custom texture ran into the seam issue, and I can't find a Wildebeast in any of the online brokers. Okay -- a middle-aged Cherokee will have to do. Now I just need to find a background that will work. The trade-off is thus; sure, the "make it all from scratch" people can do stuff the Poser junkie can't. But they make few images, they face their own limitations, and they trade polish, detail, and richness for time; they can do a "toon" quickly but a baroquely detailed jungle scene will take them all year. The Poser user trades upon pre-made material to make complex scenes quickly, to leverage the power of artistic collaberation (to inspire with directions they would not have imagined, to lean upon in the areas where they are weak, to fill in detail in places where it would otherwise be drudgery, not creation), and they can make several scenes a year; to explore their artistic visions in more depth and to branch out -- and more than anything, to have the freedom for experimentation.