I started with Poser 6, and now have only Poser 7. And, yes, the Poser manual is... junk. It has a few tips a newbie can decipher, but otherwise, only use it if you get stuck with finding a solution. Otherwise, it just gives one a headache.

And, yes, Poser is more difficult than load, point, render. It takes time. The time I've invested in Poser has ruined me for other programs. I own Carrara 6, and would love to use it, but the gui is foreign to this Poser user, and the language/glossary is also weird. I've managed to learn much of Poser Materials, so trying to figure out C6's shader room is daunting, and I loathe their slide tools and posing tools.

As far as the Material Room -- here's what this non-mathmatically inclined person does -- try it out, plug it in and see if it work :)  I've taken away a ton of info from threads here and at RDNA from Bagginsbill and the like, but when the math comes in, my brain goes dark. BUT, I've managed to pick up basic functions, and the rest is trial and error. And most times, it works to my advantage, or I discover something cool and new.

It never hurts to just play around an experiment, and once you learn what to do and what not to do, it's easier. Learn at your own level, basically.

So I'm sticking with Poser, and still enjoy using it and creating images. Yes, there are tools that are mandatory for Poser usage (many of which Smith Micro was smart enough to buy out and include in Poser 8). I love using anything by PhilC or Bagginsbill or Dimension3D and Semideau. There's also ShaderSpider over at DAZ that moves things along in the Material room (and, I think, Dimension3D has a similiar program available).

I'm still no expert after nearly 3 or 4 years, but I can at least fake it :)

-- Jeff