I'm visiting the forum for the first time today.  After reading a few of the threads on this board -  especially the rant about Poser content that's not been tested for DAZ - I've got a few questions that I'll preface with a short introduction about myself.

I'm 36, married, childfree-by-choice, and have a full-time job.  I've decided to finally take the plunge and start a new hobby in 3D modeling, but have zero interest in creating my own content.  As such, I've decided DAZ will best suit my needs as a burgeoning artist, and have acquired the V3, V4, V4.1, V4.2, and M3 models.  I've also spent countless hours browsing the content available for free and purchase, here, and on other sites, and have noticed that, with regard to freebies, the phrase, "You get what you pay for" is a little more apprapo than I'd like, so I plan on buying most of my content.

Artistically, my background is in classical guitar, poetry, and speculative fiction - all on a strictly amateur level.  I know next to nothing about 3D modeling, but am learning.    I've already started my first project, and am pacing myself in developing it by only working on it for up to an hour per session, per day, to avoid burnout.  Unfortunately, the more I read on message boards, the more confused I become, which leads me to some questions I have now...

1. I understand the differences between dynamic and comforming clothing, and that D|S is incompatible with the former, but I don't yet know how well conforming clothing works with various models.  I frequently see references to certain items of clothing being best suited for a particular model, such as Aiko, V3, and so on.  Does that mean putting... say... a skirt designed for V3 won't work with V4?  Or that a jacket designed for David won't work with Michael 3?  I'm planning on finishing the poses I'm developing, first, before clothing them.  Is that wise?  What kind of issues should I expect to run into when I clothe them?

2. I'm not expecting to have to work with any other software but D|S, but I often see lots of references to postwork being done in programs like Photoshop.  As my own skills improve, I'd like to reach a point where I can create highly detailed scenes that appear professionally rendered.  Should I plan on having to buy supplimental software for postwork?

3. Finally (for now), I use a PC with the following specs:

Dual Core Pentium D 940 3.2GHz CPU
ASUS P5ND2-SLI nForce 4 Motherboard
2GB DDR2 SD-RAM
500GB Hard Drive
256 MB PCI-E GeForce 7800 GTX

With what little of the project I've started, done so far, the file I've saved already takes about 3 minutes to load after I launch D|S, and I've got nothing more than two figures against the default white space in a relatively simple bose, with one of them snarling at the other.  Should I expect increasingly longer load times as I develop the scene?

Thank you.

Just a quick update on the third question, now that I'm home from work.  I just ran a test load of my current project, and it actually only took about a minute to load.  Sorry about over-estimating earlier, but I was posting from memory.  Nevertheless, my question on the loading issue remains.

I'm not an expert but I do use Daz Studio.  It's been my experience that the more you put in your scene the slower the program will GET while you are working on it.  I don't have any problems when I first load a scene...but if its a big scene, the longer I'm working in it the longer it takes to do some things.  Daz has a bad habit of grabbing your resources and not wanting to let go.   :rolleyes:

There are lots of people here that know more than I do and maybe some of them will jump in and advise you also.
As for the clothes. I find it easier to clothe the model before I pose it.  If you learn how to 'tweak' the clothes..you can make the same outfits fit different characters...like David to Michael...and there are programs out there that people use to make one character's clothes fit another...but I forget the name.  I just do the tweaking  ...
V3 clothes should fit V4 without much problem.

Good luck and welcome to the community here. 

1.)  Items modelled for a specific figure are generally meant to be used with said figure...they contain fit morphs for the figure and are generally modelled with their bodyshapes.
That said, you can use deformers to make changes and fit them to the figures...how?  I don't know, because I'm horrible with Deformers.

2.) Whether or not you postwork is up to you.  You can get sufficient tools with The Gimp, and it's free ;)  So, whether you spend the money on Photoshop, Painter, or PSP is up to you ;)

3.) The more items in your scene, the longer it'll take to open.  That's just simply memory usage. 

I have
AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual
Core Processor 4400+
2.21 GHz, 2.00 GB RAM
GeForce 7900 GT/GTO 256MB

I still get up to make a sandwich while I load a new scene ;)

On question 3.

Other than for my playing with cartoons and adding speech bubbles I find that the rendering capabilities of DAZ Studio are very good and I try to work within the limits of what is available, but you have to realise that there are a limited amount of things that can be brought into your 3D world without either searching all over the place or paying an arm and a leg to buy them. 

My impression, as a relative beginner, is that most 'serious' practitioners do a bit of 'post-processing' .  I use PaintShopPro 7 but I think that the 'professional' choice is Photoshop.
 
The best bet is to do some work, try doing what you want to do, and then if (probably when) you reach a 'block' look around.  There may be a free package that does it, if not I do suggest that you go for the package that is most commonly used by people doing the same or similar things that you want to do.

Question 2
clothing seems to be a real pain.  The clothes will not necessarily allow all poses, so extreme bends of legs, arms etc. can really mess them up.  I find clothing them in the early stages helps to understand the limitations and adjust accordingly.  

As to fit, I think it is better to use clothes designed for the paticular model, although looser fitting ones allow more leeway.  Play a bit before buying too much.

No, I am not an expert, my comments are more those of a beginner reporting back his first muddy footsteps....

Regards
Peter

Hi new Dazzer. If you need help, just pm me. Hugs :-)

Thank you all for the information.  I'm sorry to read that clothing morphs can be limiting; that's especially unfortunate considering the types of scenes I have in mind to create.  I'm going to have a lot of experimenting to look forward to.

I'm going to be in a position to buy a retail copy of Poser 7, next month, and there's a lot of content in the Marketplace that I would love to be able to work with without having to worry about compatibility issues with D|S.  While I understand that D|S is a powerful tool, and that its popularity is growing, I'm also aware of the bias against it by vendors who create content for Poser and opt not to test in D|S.  Should I stick with D|S since I won't need the content-creation tools available in Poser, or should I buy a copy of Poser so that I can use content created for it?

Clothing - I don't know how good later versions of Poser are - I have Poser 4 and the problems are the same as those in DAZ Studio, if not a little worse.  I have not been tempted back to Poser4 yet......

Perhaps the 'dynamic clothing' in later versions of Poser is more effective - I suggest asking a few questions on the Poser boards to find out and having a look at what is in the galleries to see if the sort thing you want is being achieved, and if so, how.  

I may be being unduly pessimistic at what can be achieved with 'conforming clothes'.  Is there a particularly good offer on Poser7 or can you wait until you have experimented?  In my experience there are limitations in most things, although the current stuff is far better than what was available when I first tried this some 6 years ago.

Regards
Peter

Quote - Is there a particularly good offer on Poser7 or can you wait until you have experimented?

I can definitely wait.  I'm merely trying to plan ahead.  I really don't want to buy a $200 package only to find it collecting dust because I've lost interest in this new hobby.  For the time being, I'll just stick with D|S and limit my spending to the 3D models available at DAZ, unless I find something here that I'm certain will work with D|S.  As my skills develop, if I start to find DAZ too limiting for my needs, then I'll consider trying Poser.

Understood, but tread warily. 

Poser4 when I bought it came with a lot of models.  These were complete - one did not need you to buy extra texture packs, clothes, pose packs and so on - I just found them very ugly and do not know how good the current stuff is. 

DAZ marketing policy is very astute - and yes, their stuff is good, but you could find yourself running through that $200 quite quickly and then wish you had spent it on Poser7 instead!  

Examples of a recent annoyance:

1. The free package from DAZ includes a cat, with some poses.  No textures, but sure, you can search and find them on the internet I think.  What was annoying that the cat as supplied could not open its mouth.  $34  please to get that (with textures and so on).  Instead I use the cat (and the dog) from Poser4 (they are actually Poser3 models).  At least it could open its mouth.
2. I bought the V4.2 Pro pack.  I contains a Morph to create Helena, who is a bit more endowed.  I cannot get the clothes supplied (i.e. undies, a lacey blouse, a coat, some shorts - that sort of thing), other than the pants with a bit of fiddling, to fit Helena as she is a Full Body Morph.

It may appear that I am unhappy with DAZ, but actually I am delighted with my purchase at a special price of $25 'instead of $99' and the free DAZ Studio and its contents.  When it comes to buying more stuff I recommend though that you check thoroughly what the package contains beforehand, and to be honest if I had the spare cash I would be investigating Poser7 very closely myself before treading further.....

Some interesting links that you may not have come across that provide free stuff:

http://free.daz3d.com/

http://www.planit3d.com/source/index.htm

http://www.joes3dfantasyworlds.com/down/arch01/arch01.htm

http://digitalbabes2.com/

http://www.philc.net/freestuff_archive.htm

90% of the things made for Poser do work in Daz.  Anytime you aren't sure about a product, if you ask in the forum here or at Daz, before you buy..someone will be able to tell you if it works in Daz.
I have Poser 6 but never use it.  I just use DS now.

Quote - Understood, but tread warily... Some interesting links that you may not have come across that provide free stuff..

Good point - experiment with free content, and only start looking at premium content when I feel I'm ready.  Thank you for the links.

Just a brief additional comment about 'post work'.  I am beginning to find it useful for contrast / improving lighting and patching up things here and there - maybe I was a bit over-optimistic when I wrote in my earler post that it did not seem to be necessary.  Ah well, another muddy step / stumble forward.