Greets all,
My first post.
Been a few years since I dabbled with Poser (think it was version 3 or 4??), anyways my interest has been re-ignited again.  I am aware that DAZ is out and not sure how it compares to Poser, I am thinking of buying either based on the info I get here. I would like to create renders of pretty much photoreal nude people, (no its not for porn!, illustration work)
hence here are my questions,
Which program will offer me the more realistic meshes/models?
What is the latest poser male and female models?
Where can I get the best photo textures ?
What advice can you offer on hair,
Is there any models that can be purchased with hair and textures that are ready to go/render.

I use MAYA mostly so i am not too concerned with rendering in Poser

really appreciate any help
Thanks
Mike

Actually DAZ Studio itself is free.  They do charge for plug-ins, but if all you want to do
is pose the model and then render it in Maya, DAZ Studio should be sufficient for that.
Poser as it comes out of the box offers goodies like a more advanced material room,
a cloth room for draping clothing props over the model, a hair room for creating hair,
and a set-up room for converting an object into a posable figure.  As far as I know,
DAZ Studio doesn't have these with the free version.
They both come with free figures. Poser has a wider selection though. If you are
looking for realism, you will probably need to buy the model separately.
Poser's latest models are Simon G2 and Sidney G2
Poser 7 comes with some Kozaburo hair models, as well as you being able to
create hair in the hair room.  With DAZ Studio you are limited to prop hair
and for something nice you have to buy it separately.

thanks for that,

ok so probab;y getting poser makes more sense, anyone know where (website) I can get the high detailed models and textures,
tnx,
Mike

Daz3d.com

V4, V3, M3 are the base models you'll need. Plus morphs and texture packs.

You can purchase the Daz figures, ones at RDNA, Download Apollo Maximus for free....
(I survived a good year when I first started before I had the urge to buy anything for Poser...)

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2749103

That link takes you to the "Women of Poser" project a member is doing, but there's a wealth of links to freebie figures and other such goodies within.

I'll just pass along the following links:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2735068&page=1#message_3201624

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=3251565&ebot_calc_page#message_3251565

ok thanks for that, if I said that I was happy enough to buy Poser (pro) and Iwhat everever else I need to make the characters look good woulf it be a no brainer then to buy Poser Pro,  we may even import some animations into maya.  I am confused to the shear amout of stuff that is out there on these sites, am I corrct in say that a morph is a file that defines the detail and shape of a character eg VIC3, how do the textures work with different morphs so that they dont stretch on the model?

Thanks
Mike

ok thanks for that, if I said that I was happy enough to buy Poser (pro) and whatever else I need to make the characters look good would it be a no brainer then to buy Poser Pro,  we may even import some animations into maya.  I am confused to the shear amout of stuff that is out there on these sites, am I corrct in say that a morph is a file that defines the detail and shape of a character eg VIC3, how do the textures work with different morphs so that they dont stretch on the model?

Thanks
Mike

Morphs just change the shape (just a little) of the base model to make different people. Because it really isn't a very great distance you really don't need to do anything to the textures.
Buy textures.

Cararra 6 from DAZ is also worth looking at, if you are interested in a program that will also do modeling. It loads Poser items, too, but not quite as conveniently as with Poser. It has a very good rendering engine. I use both, myself.
Gordon

I just use Poser for posing and all the great models/creatures :)
I render in Vue Infinite (I find it much better than Carrara, but it only models terrains), and build models in Rhino.

Each to his own ;)