(back on topic, just for a moment OK?)

I did a search for "uncanny valley", and although it has been mentioned a few times on the site nothing showed up in the Poser forums.

For those not familiar with the idea a quick search should explain all, but in principle it goes like this...

With the advance of digital soft / hardware it has become possible to generate images that look very like humans. Problem is that the closer you get to realism, they seem worse instead of better - until someday you finally climb up the other side of the "valley" and have an acceptable photorealistic image.

So those folks using Poser 4 are standing safely on the "non-realistic" side of the valley, and those who push Poser 5/6 to it's limits can often just find themselves slap bang in the middle of the "valley". Which in it's "uncanny" way makes P4 better than P6 - because all of the new bell's and whistles don't ensure a more pleasing result.
Until the node magicians can turn out an all-purpose all-lighting procedural skin (and all the rest) the climb up the far side still goes on.

Now maybe Poser 7 will be the "killer" app that turns things around - though I'm not betting on that.

Rô

My favourite question is "Why?", my second favourite is "Why not?"