I somewhat agree with jonthecelt. I've just splashed out for C4D 10, mainly because I need a stronger, faster and more stable renderer than Poser, but also because I wanted something to model in, and after using a free version 6 that came with Computer Arts ages ago, I just "clicked" with the interface in a way that I didn't with any of the other 3D apps I tried (Wings3D, Hexagon, Silo, and Carrara).  As with everything, your experience might be different.

Now, if you still want to work with C4D, and import Poser figures into it, your best bet is to get Kuroyume's InterPoser Pro, which is brilliant.  Although I believe that with C4D 10, there are still some things to iron when it comes down to animation, but he's working on it. Truth be told, you could in theory re-rig the poser figures and add weight mapping and all of the other really nice tricks to get a much better character animation in C4D, which I don't believe you can do with Vue or Carrara.   Unfortunately, iPP is not exactly cheap, which will add to your costs. And should you choose to re-rig, you'd also add quite some extra work to whatever it is that you are doing.

iPP can also import camaras and lighting, although now that I am learning it, I much, much prefer C4D's lighting to Poser's.

For an example on Poser figures imported into C4D using iPP, go to my gallery and look for The Night Mare. I haven't rendered anything else in it  -although I've been modelling a bit-. Or look up Fredy3D's gallery, who uses Poser+iPP+C4D+Photoshop. That should give you a really good idea of what can be done.

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