I got Poser 5 for free, and upgraded to Poser 6, upgraded to Poser 7, sidegraded to PoserPro Basic, upgraded to Poser 8, and sidegraded to PoserPro 2010. Each version had improvements.

Poser 8 was able to render scenes that would not render in PoserPro Basic, and was much faster than Poser 7/PoserPro Basic.

If one may have need for an extra license for Poser 8,  $99.00 is very reasonable.

For those who have never owned Poser,  Poser 8 comes with almost all of the legacy content from previous versions of Poser, and there are numerous sites (as well as here at Renderosity) that have plenty of free Poser content. Even the current DAZ 3D base figures are free.

Dr. Geep has great tutorials about using Poser to make content. There are several free modeling programs that can be used to make content, and there are people here who use those programs to help a new person get started.

Gimp is a free 2D graphics program that I use all the time to alter or make textures. There are some free UV mappers available. Tutorials abound at many sites to teach all kinds of techniques in using Poser. This forum is a valuble source of information with very helpful people.

Anyone who does not already have a large library of Poser content should not be afraid of buying Poser and having no content to get started with. If you CAN spend some extra money, most of the stores are full of sales items from now until Christmas.

LMK

Probably edited for spelling, grammer, punctuation, or typos.