I do this all the time using programs like Vue 8 Infinite, VRay, C4D, etc. and mainly just use Poser Pro 7 (now testing 2010) for character setup along with material room changes. So, I can tell you that yes, the two are different in terms of how the skins are shaded. Typically, I leave the import Poser skin shaders turned on for importing into Vue. Then I go into Vue Advanced Material Editor and hand tweak the settings for all the materials.

The biggest key to getting a realistic render of a character are many factors. First, you need a very good skin texture which most figures have now, based on real skin photos from places like 3d.sk. Do NOT change them to a lower res, use whatever the default is such as 4000x4000 pixels. Leave everything else in high res too (eyes, hair, etc.) Then make sure everything is setup in the Poser Material Room and do a test render there just to check, don't worry about lighting, that will be setup in the more high end 3D program. Second, import your Poser character into Vue, leave the Poser shader option checked when importing. Third, put your posed Poser import character into the scene and work on lighting.

Now, it will all depend upon what the scene is and if it will be a day or night scene. Here, lighting is always key to a great render. In fact, it is just as, if not more important than anything else. That is why you MUST have a good understanding of how lighting works for the 3D program you are working in. If you still are not happy, try Skin Vue 8 and see for yourself, but NOTHING is a substitute for doing some manual tweaking of the shaders and understanding lighting inside Vue.

Keep in mind, some settings in Skin Vue REPLACES the shaders that you imported with your Poser figures. Just make sure you know what you are working with because you may or may not want to replace them. The image here is just a simple import with NO tweaks or use of Skin Vue or other skin enhancers, just standard Poser mats.

Jeff

Development on: Mac Pro 2008, Duel-Boot OS - Snow Leopard 10.6.6 & Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit, 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon , 10GB 800 MHz DDR2 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT.