I would really like to start creating my own characters ...  Does anyone know of any good tutorials or have any suggestions......Thanks

Do you mean characters for existing models , or your own custom figure ?

my vote would be for a new original figure (new obj geometry, new JPs, etc.)

Quinlor has one for Wings mesh to poseable character (if'n only I could follow directions..;)

Hi Draco,

I decided the same thing about two years ago.  I had been an artist all my life and painted portraits, so I thought, "how hard could creating my own characters be."

-first, you'll need to be a master 3D modeler.  If you're starting today, give yourself about a year just to be decent, and a life time to master.
-next, the UV map.  Go download a uvmapping program and experiement stretching out simple shapes like spheres or boxes, then imagine mapping a character with 100,000 polygons.
-and then, texture mapping.  You wont be able to use existing texture packages, so you better be a talented texture artist, or know someone who is.
-and then there's RIGGING the character in Poser so it can move.  This all depends on how you divided your mesh. Different mesh cuts means differences in how your character bends and moves.  Try to find a few tutorials on SETUP ROOM and give that a try.  It's less skill and more voodoo and luck.  You'll come to hate terms like "spherical falloff zones."

So after I had done all this, tested, packaged and submitted to Renderosity and sufferend a partial loss of eye sight from staring at vertexes for months and months, people complained because the expensive clothing packages they owned wouldn't work on my model.

But several added that my model was really hot, but they had no use because of the clothing issue.

So good luck and have fun.

My guess is that if this person is just asking they realy would have specified if they meant the complicated avenue.

I never want to see a new figure.  Nobody is going o say any top figure is more Human than an other, but when it comes time to transfer all of your hard work, none of your Human Morphs/Magnets are compatable, what a Racket!

What figure you should use depends on what gender you would like to work on.   V3 is available for free, at Daz3D.com, but requires her Head and Morph pack, really.  For males you should also want to check out Daz3D's David or michael 2, and thier respective Head and Body packs.  My avatar in many of the images you'll see in threads with my name on it are V3.  The link in my signature is all of Michael 2.  Currently, I'm working on David.

Daz3Ds Body morphs are the best in the business, hands down.  Thier head morphs, especially for V3, are also the best.  But, none of thier figures work in the Poser Face Room.  So, it's kind of a coin toss over which figure "Could" "Potentially" be better Daz3D's or the Stock Poser figures, though many people will sum that up for you real quick...

My own custom figure

I would strongly recommend "Scerets of Figure Creation with Poser 5" by BL Render. It's got a lot of great information in it, plus it's in a wonderful, portable format called a "book". I relied on it a great deal when creating my original Poser figure, Diana. Oh, and I'm not really against online tutorials, Quinlors are very good. For the modelling and UVmapping, you should look for tutorials specific to your application, for rigging I recommend Render's book, for texture mapping, I'm not sure, since texture mapping scares me.

good luck!

hindsight, check with philc on the possibility of getting your figure to work with existing clothing sets, using "wardrobe wizard".