Quote - judging from the postings in its forum, ZBrush seems less complex to learn.    Plus, the ZBrush folks sculpt their models out of some simple mesh blocks made in their Maya or 3DSMax app. -- they choose ZBrush as their final modeling tool.

Note that all those wonderful brush modelling features of ZBrush work best on meshes that are astronomically dense, like in the multi-million poly range (which is equivalent to more then 20-30 V3 meshes)... This is not the kind of heavy mesh you can use directly in most apps, including poser, and certainly not for a single char/prop. So you will have to create a low poly version first and use displacements for the detail. But zbrush's 'non brushy' modelling tools are very primitive, so in general you will need to use a dedicated modeller (even a free one like wings will do) to get the initial mesh before you start zbrushing it. Also you will need a good UV mapping tool, because zbrush only supports auto UVs.

You could use a 'simple mesh block' like a sphere or a cube to start but the mesh you get this way will be hard to rig properly in poser and will give you all kinds of artifacts in a render.