well how do i say this nicely.
Poser IMO was not designed to make the same quality of work (without post work) that aplpicaitons like MAX and Maya are. BUT thats the chouice you make when spending $250.00 vs $3500.00 or $7000.00. But the MAJORITY of us who use Poser are not in an industry that require us to use these other tools. Also consider that once you purchase the main applicaiton , in order to achieve the high end quality you still need to invest another few thousand into the applications plug ins to produce the same outstanding work that others are doing.

On that note, can realiztic renders be achieved in poser? the answer is absolutely YES. But its not something any one who has never touched the applicaiton can sit down and do in 1 hour. I myself have been using Poser since Poser4, and still have many things to master. Just like I ahve been using 3D studio max for about the same length of time and also have 10 times more to master in that applicaiton than I do in Poser.

BUT those that have taken the time, and have put forth the enrgy can produce the same imagery in Poser with soem post work as those that do in other applications. Poser as a tool does an excellant job at all the variety of funtions it does. But you cannot just sit down for an hour or 2 and whip out a stunning master piece. You cannot do this in other applications as well. And for my money I would rather spend the $250 i spent in poser over the $7000 required to own MAYA and have 1000x more things to learn to produce the same image.

aka MCDLabs
also known as Daniel Merrill a grumpy old disabled Jarhead.
checkout my freebies at
https://www.sharecg.com/pf/full_uploads.php?pf_user_name=mcdlabs