Yes, Poser 4 can indeed create renders. You see a lot of folks export posed figures out to Bryce because it has a better render engine. 1. You will need a 3D modeling program to create the mesh for a new figure. You'll also want to have a 2D paint program for the texturing work. There is a free program called UVMapper that is the standard for making the texture templates. After you've created the mesh, the joint set and such can be done directly in Poser. 2. The Pro-Pack has a lot of different features. The Setup Room helps the joint setup process. There are plug-ins for exporting Poser figures to various programs. A scripting language called PoserPython is also included. Take a look at the PPP area at CuriousLabs for a complete list. 3. There is a rumored Poser 5 in the works but I haven't heard anything about it being in beta at this point. CL is pretty good about upgrading if you've recently bought just before a new release.