I'm a new Poser 11 user, and am experiencing a lot of frustration with the program. Very few of the parts of it work together nicely, if at all. For instance, the Preview Render has a series of comic book options, that don't work with Firefly or Superfly. Fine. But only Firefly or Superfly can see the actual hair that you grow in the Hair Room; Preview mode only sees an indicator of where each hair should be, but not its thickness or color. This makes LaFemme a lot less useful than she might be, because most of the 'legacy' hair for other figures doesn't like her. I'm sure there are ways to achieve a decent fit with most of them, but for some it seems like almost as much work as building it from scratch in Blender. And if I wanted to build everything in scratch in Blender, why would I buy Poser? So, my question for all you Daz Studio users is, is it really any better, or is it the same kind of mish-mash of legacy code and legacy assets that don't really get along?

Well trying in everyway possible to avoid a Daz vs Poser thread, which are known to end up rather unpleasant by all accounts.

I guess it all depends, one thing though Daz Studio is free and is still very actively in development why not just download it and do a tutorial or two and see what you think.Genesis 8 base is also free and has a pretty good compatibility with tens of thousands of Legacy Genesis and V4 products.

What Razor said!

I have not yet tried Poser 11. LaFemme is not designed or intended to work in Daz, but Daz comes with starter packs that have a lot of content that works well, I like Daz. I am still with Daz 4.10 because it's reasonably stable and works well on my aging system. The current version is 4.11 with 4.12 in beta testing. You would download 4.11. It's compatible with a wide array of Daz and Rendo content, even content intended for use with older versions of Poser. It's a free download. There is no penalty for trying it, and I recommend doing that.

Razor, Torquinox- thanks for the replies. I'm certainly not trying to start a war, I'm just trying to find tools that will work for what I want to do. Poser is problematic for the reasons offered above, and I'm wondering if Daz is less so- but let me be more specific about what I want to do: I'm developing a graphic novel project, and on the output end I'm looking for non-photorealistic rendering so I can produce a noirish comic book style. I have a very limited budget (post-Poser, zero....) so AutoDesk products are out. I want a practical workflow, so I want the renders to require an absolute minimum of post production work. I can already draw reasonably well, my goals in going 3D are to speed up production and make characters more consistent, especially from odd angles. So, one possibility is to make really crappy renders that I can use as drawing reference or paint-over- and I can pretty much do this in Poser. But, the amount of front-end, pre-production overhead is considerable even for crappy renders, so this may not speed up production much. It would be nice to be able make renders that are useful right out of the renderer. I can, of course, take a dive into Daz and figure it out for myself, but I ask in the forum because I don't really want to spend several weeks arriving at the same place I am with Poser, so if anyone can advise me, it might save a lot of time and effort better spent elsewhere.

You may want a toon shader or you need to tweak a shader for toon-like output, or do a toon render. I have pwToon for Daz, but I haven't done much with it. I should check it out more! What if you used a posterization filter to give your render a toon-like appearance? Then you could use either Daz or Poser and make a photoreal render. You could tweak the lighting to give it a more stylized look.

Torquinox posted at 12:42PM Thu, 22 August 2019 - #4360126

You may want a toon shader or you need to tweak a shader for toon-like output, or do a toon render. I have pwToon for Daz, but I haven't done much with it. I should check it out more! What if you used a posterization filter to give your render a toon-like appearance? Then you could use either Daz or Poser and make a photoreal render. You could tweak the lighting to give it a more stylized look.

I've messed around with this approach some and I haven't been able to get the look I'm after without an inordinate amount of postwork. I pretty much feel like if I'm going to do that much postwork I might as well draw it, because that's more flexible and requires less pre-production work. The pwToon shader sounds promising, though. I found it (I think), so I guess I'll have to learn enough Daz to see if it works...

Excellent! Oso Toon Shader also looks promising, but I haven't tried it. It's Iray, and one thing about Daz: You have 2 renderers. 3Delight is a renderman renderer that provides standard OpenGL previews. Iray is a PBR renderer that only provides a preview with Nvidia graphics cards and when the viewport is set to iray. Then it acts like a realtime renderer. And this is important: The renderers use 2 different lighting models with their own controls and settings.

Torquinox posted at 2:05PM Thu, 22 August 2019 - #4360132

Excellent! Oso Toon Shader also looks promising, but I haven't tried it. It's Iray, and one thing about Daz: You have 2 renderers. 3Delight is a renderman renderer that provides standard OpenGL previews. Iray is a PBR renderer that only provides a preview with Nvidia graphics cards and when the viewport is set to iray. Then it acts like a realtime renderer. And this is important: The renderers use 2 different lighting models with their own controls and settings.

Thanks! That Oso Toon Shader looks impressive. It appears to have the kind of flexibility I need, unlike the native tools for Poser. Can you tell me a little about how you would set up a shader like that in Iray? The way the Superfly and Firefly renderers are set up, there doesn't seem to be any place to plug something like that in, except on a material-by-material basis. That's no fun!

I'm not sure. I noticed this: "This product was made to be brought into Photoshop or Gimp to create final results." It appears you can't directly contact PAs on daz site the way you can contact vendors here. I would put in a help request at Daz site and see if their people can help you.

Torquinox posted at 4:34PM Thu, 22 August 2019 - #4360154

I'm not sure. I noticed this: "This product was made to be brought into Photoshop or Gimp to create final results." It appears you can't directly contact PAs on daz site the way you can contact vendors here. I would put in a help request at Daz site and see if their people can help you.

Yes, I noticed that too- which is not ideal, but does offer quite a bit of control. He gets some pretty interest results.

I agree.

Time for my biased-as-hell $0.02

Background: I've used DAZ Studio ever since it was a barely-stable alpha build. I previously worked for them as a developer, and was present at the release of version 1.0. I even wrote the very first user manual for it.

I used Poser from 1999(-ish) to 2012, gradually switching over - I first stumbled into Poser while looking to find tools to build maps for Quake2 (Weapons Factory Mod), Quake 3 (ditto), then Unreal Tournament (same-same).

I stopped using Poser in 2012 or so, but I will probably purchase Poser Pro 11 once they get the licensing issues sorted out. Sounds odd, right?

Well, in my case there's a reason or four: I like to tinker. A lot of people I know and respect have done cool things in it that I cannot do in DS (why? Because they take two almost entirely different approaches to workflow. That's fully intentional, BTW.) I want to cleanse my mental palette a bit. There are figures (PE, LaFemme) that I want to give a try. I resent the fact that I am typing this on a Windows laptop and not a MacBook Pro, because Apple ditched nvidia GPUs, and the kick-ass render engine DS uses, iRay, requires an nVidia GPU with CUDA-compliant drivers (and no, I'm not gonna do an external GPU because those are, quite frankly, retarded - doubly so given my business travel schedule.)

. Now - to answer your question... in your case, give it a whirl. It'll cost you exactly $0.00 to try it out. There's a megaton of free content for the Genesis 8 male and female figures (their latest). Most Poser content works just fine in DS (though the latest ones may be missing a few features.)

This way, you can decide...

So, I took the plunge on Blender and am up to my neck in tutorials now, so learning Daz is going on the back burner. Or into the fridge. So far it seems like a remarkably clean, organized and sensible system, not nearly as scary as it seemed when I looked at years ago. It's too soon to really pass judgement on it, but by this stage in most dives into software programs I've had a few dozen "WTF!" moments and so far I haven't had any. Excellent beginner tutorials at the Blender site.

Penguinisto posted at 8:44PM Thu, 22 August 2019 - #4360184

Time for my biased-as-hell $0.02

Background: I've used DAZ Studio ever since it was a barely-stable alpha build. I previously worked for them as a developer, and was present at the release of version 1.0. I even wrote the very first user manual for it.

I used Poser from 1999(-ish) to 2012, gradually switching over - I first stumbled into Poser while looking to find tools to build maps for Quake2 (Weapons Factory Mod), Quake 3 (ditto), then Unreal Tournament (same-same).

I stopped using Poser in 2012 or so, but I will probably purchase Poser Pro 11 once they get the licensing issues sorted out. Sounds odd, right?

Well, in my case there's a reason or four: I like to tinker. A lot of people I know and respect have done cool things in it that I cannot do in DS (why? Because they take two almost entirely different approaches to workflow. That's fully intentional, BTW.) I want to cleanse my mental palette a bit. There are figures (PE, LaFemme) that I want to give a try. I resent the fact that I am typing this on a Windows laptop and not a MacBook Pro, because Apple ditched nvidia GPUs, and the kick-ass render engine DS uses, iRay, requires an nVidia GPU with CUDA-compliant drivers (and no, I'm not gonna do an external GPU because those are, quite frankly, retarded - doubly so given my business travel schedule.)

. Now - to answer your question... in your case, give it a whirl. It'll cost you exactly $0.00 to try it out. There's a megaton of free content for the Genesis 8 male and female figures (their latest). Most Poser content works just fine in DS (though the latest ones may be missing a few features.)

This way, you can decide...

Well, it's bias I want! No namby pamby beat around the bush equivocation, tell me what you think!
Although, as I mentioned above, I'm shelving the Daz dive for the time being, I would be very interested in hearing how the workflows differ from P11 and Daz. I'm certainly no Poser expert at this point, but the word 'flow' doesn't seem to belong with what I'm experiencing there- probably because I'm not pursuing photorealistic rendering. I'm sure that would make my life a lot easier. From what you say, I'm going to guess that you have experience with Blender, too, I'm curious as to how you would compare it to Poser and Daz.

Blender 2.8 is looking pretty cool, I've still been getting my head around the new interface and changes to the shortcuts for a bit now.

You might want to also check out the Highlight notes for Daz Studio 4.12 as there is a bit of an overhaul of the animation tools in the next version which may interest you.

One thing I will say is that Blender is a big pond and it will take you quite a while to feel comfortable with it, and it's a pretty big undertaking to make every asset from scratch so you may want to also look at porting your assets through either Poser or DS to be more efficient.

This video may interest you. It's about toon shading in Blender 2.8

Personally, you're gonna have your hands full learning Blender. The UI has improved... a lot. :)

But, while I don't know about Poser 11, I do know that the UI in DS is going to be far freer and more flexible than you ever thought possible (it's modeled on Modo and Lightwave's UIs from back in the day, where you can arrange things any way you want, and show or hide whatever you want. )

The lighting will depend on which render engine you want to use: 3Delight is a workhorse that's been around since the beginning(ish), and can run on anything. DAZ went for iRay for the full-on photorealistic high-end rendering - it requires an nVidia GPU for full=speed rendering, but will render on just CPU power in exchange for a huge hit in performance). Each has its own bugaboos for lighting, and the shaders differ between the two (though iRay will usually pick up the 3Delight shaders w/o too much issue).

But... don't worry about it just yet. get your head wrapped around Blender first :)

Oh, and Blender is primarily a modeling app that can do compositing, lighting, animation, and rendering. Poser and DAZ Studio are primarily compositing apps that can do (some!) primitives and shaping thereof, compositing, lighting, animation, and rendering.

You might want to also consider some other aspects that may come up in your project for example. Things like speech, rigging of assets, availability of assets and other animation tools. One thing with DS you are going to be able to pull a lot more well supported products straight of the shelf and get them running pretty seamlessly.

Here is a quick toon animation done with DS not really sure it's the style you are after but it looks pretty good.

Razor42 posted at 10:06PM Thu, 22 August 2019 - #4360189

Blender 2.8 is looking pretty cool, I've still been getting my head around the new interface and changes to the shortcuts for a bit now.

You might want to also check out the Highlight notes for Daz Studio 4.12 as there is a bit of an overhaul of the animation tools in the next version which may interest you.

One thing I will say is that Blender is a big pond and it will take you quite a while to feel comfortable with it, and it's a pretty big undertaking to make every asset from scratch so you may want to also look at porting your assets through either Poser or DS to be more efficient.

This video may interest you. It's about toon shading in Blender 2.8

Cool video, thank you. As far as making everything in Blender- true, that's a big job, but I don't have any objection to importing objects. I know that dealing with file formats and conversions can be a headache, but that's true with every program, right? I think that animation is beyond the scope of my ambitions for now.

Penguinisto posted at 10:10PM Thu, 22 August 2019 - #4360191

Personally, you're gonna have your hands full learning Blender. The UI has improved... a lot. :)

But, while I don't know about Poser 11, I do know that the UI in DS is going to be far freer and more flexible than you ever thought possible (it's modeled on Modo and Lightwave's UIs from back in the day, where you can arrange things any way you want, and show or hide whatever you want. )

The lighting will depend on which render engine you want to use: 3Delight is a workhorse that's been around since the beginning(ish), and can run on anything. DAZ went for iRay for the full-on photorealistic high-end rendering - it requires an nVidia GPU for full=speed rendering, but will render on just CPU power in exchange for a huge hit in performance). Each has its own bugaboos for lighting, and the shaders differ between the two (though iRay will usually pick up the 3Delight shaders w/o too much issue).

But... don't worry about it just yet. get your head wrapped around Blender first :)

Oh, and Blender is primarily a modeling app that can do compositing, lighting, animation, and rendering. Poser and DAZ Studio are primarily compositing apps that can do (some!) primitives and shaping thereof, compositing, lighting, animation, and rendering.

Yeah, Blender is certainly a big undertaking, but so far I'm surprised by how accessible it all seems to be. It'll probably be a while before I even get to the point of rendering anything- I'm swamped with other stuff right now- but I do like the fact that a really complete suite of modeling tools is in the package. I don't think I'll be up for creating human figures any time soon, but it looks like making sets and props is pretty doable. I'm already getting some ideas for making sets specifically for hard-edged comic noir lighting- although I won't know if they're GOOD ideas until I make them...

Razor42 posted at 10:17PM Thu, 22 August 2019 - #4360195

You might want to also consider some other aspects that may come up in your project for example. Things like speech, rigging of assets, availability of assets and other animation tools. One thing with DS you are going to be able to pull a lot more well supported products straight of the shelf and get them running pretty seamlessly.

Here is a quick toon animation done with DS not really sure it's the style you are after but it looks pretty good.

Razor, that does look pretty good, and no, it's not the style I'm after. I'm oriented toward comic/graphic novel projects, not animation- although tools for animation look pretty impressive in Blender, as well. I suspect that the biggest headache in Blender is going to be imported asset compatibility/convertibility. That seems to be a headache everywhere, though. I appreciate that Daz has a lot assets that run right off the shelf- and I'll probably be getting into the DS system after I have some grasp of Blender, to compare how they work. So far, though, I have to say Blender seems easier to learn and understand what's going on than any other 3D program I've looked at- or most serious 2D programs, for that matter. It will be interesting see how much I can do with 'the basics' and a handful of advanced elements. There looks like being a lot of capability I will never use.

One thing with Blender is the wealth of tutorials, huge amount of addons and the supporting community. The main issue I found is as you mentioned the diverse capability of Blender, which is both a benefit and hindrance when learning. Quite often to achieve something simple I have needed to resort to searching online for an answer even though I had done it before. It's easy to forget a method you have used previously, but only rarely. And it may be as simple as why pressing a single character to achieve a function doesn't work when your in a different mode (Obvious when you know, but frustrating when you just can't figure out why it's not working as described). But that said learning Blender is a massive asset to anyone interested in 3D graphics and is well worth the time invested. Blender is also being pretty well adopted in the broader industry and by professional studios these days.Modelling skills are something that can save you a heap of money and give your art a unique style. But if you need something as simple as a Taxi in the background, modelling a taxi from scratch for a single panel just isn't really practical. And these assets need to come from somewhere with a minimal workflow hit where possible. Of course any asset you do create can always be sold under license in a marketplace to offset the time spent creating it. Which is something else you also may want to think about moving forward.

Focusing on still graphics will take a lot of the headaches out of it to start for example the Toon Shader mentioned aboved by OSO3D relies on external compositing making it impractical for animation but perfect for frames in a graphic novel if you did decide to use DS for the rendering side of things.

Anyways keep us up to date if you can, I would be interested in seeing how you decide to proceed and seeing some of your artwork.

Razor42 posted at 11:31PM Thu, 22 August 2019 - #4360204

One thing with Blender is the wealth of tutorials, huge amount of addons and the supporting community. The main issue I found is as you mentioned the diverse capability of Blender, which is both a benefit and hindrance when learning. Quite often to achieve something simple I have needed to resort to searching online for an answer even though I had done it before. It's easy to forget a method you have used previously, but only rarely. And it may be as simple as why pressing a single character to achieve a function doesn't work when your in a different mode (Obvious when you know, but frustrating when you just can't figure out why it's not working as described). But that said learning Blender is a massive asset to anyone interested in 3D graphics and is well worth the time invested. Blender is also being pretty well adopted in the broader industry and by professional studios these days.Modelling skills are something that can save you a heap of money and give your art a unique style. But if you need something as simple as a Taxi in the background, modelling a taxi from scratch for a single panel just isn't really practical. And these assets need to come from somewhere with a minimal workflow hit where possible. Of course any asset you do create can always be sold under license in a marketplace to offset the time spent creating it. Which is something else you also may want to think about moving forward.

Focusing on still graphics will take a lot of the headaches out of it to start for example the Toon Shader mentioned aboved by OSO3D relies on external compositing making it impractical for animation but perfect for frames in a graphic novel if you did decide to use DS for the rendering side of things.

Anyways keep us up to date if you can, I would be interested in seeing how you decide to proceed and seeing some of your artwork.

It'll probably be awhile before I produce anything that could be called artwork, but I'll try to check back in. Thanks to all of you, you're a wealth of information.

Hello HKHan99, and welcome to the madness of 3D!

I've read your threads in the other two forums, and thought this forum may be the best place to post a response (the Blender forum would have worked too, but I use DAZ Studio a lot, so this is the one I chose). As you may well have already gathered, there is no simple response to your questions. Everyone tends to have their favorite software, often for different reasons, but one thing that is fairly common is the closer the logic in the workflow and the design of the UI fit with the way you think (especially when first starting out), the easier it will be to learn. It sounds like the logic and UI in Blender 2.8 is a good fit for you. I'm just learning Blender 2.8 myself, and I'm finding it very easy to use, with a lot of great features (soooo much better than the previous UI).

I should give you a bit of background, so you know where I'm coming from and you can better evaluate my opinions. I've been involved with 3D of some sort since about 1990, I started using Poser with version 3, I started dabbling with DAZ Studio (DS) when is was just a beta product (i.e. before is was version 1). I did my first real modeling with Cinema 4D (version 6), and then Carrara Studio (version 2), and have also used Hexagon for modeling. I've used several other 3D software packages, but those really don't pertain at all to what you are doing (more for technical landscapes and virtual archaeological site reconstructions). My focus has never been for any type of comic book style renders, so I'm fairly ignorant there! I have also had a real love/hate relationship with Poser. It has always seemed to have so much potential, but for what I've wanted it has always fallen a bit short, with the last version (Poser 11) being the first version I didn't upgrade to (even though I was very interested in Superfly, it seemed like it was rushed out the door, and didn't have what I was looking for). So, I'm not a big Poser user, but have had a fair amount of experience with it.

If you decide on Blender "only", the biggest hurdle might be finding the figures you want for creating your comics in a native Blender format. I have no doubt that Cycles (or Eevee) will be able to provide the comic render style you want, and the real-time view port rendering of Eevee, or near real-time view port rendering of Cycles will no doubt be perfect for the view port visualization you want. The real question is can you find enough affordable pre-made content in Blender format for your needs (or depending on your needs, you may have the time and desire to create your own, which makes the pre-made content issue mute).

For the content side of things, Poser or DS might be the perfect "addon" for Blender. I know there is a way to export from Poser to Blender (IIRC the steps needed are in the Blender forum here), but don't have any experience with it. I have tried the diffeomorphic plugin for DS, and it does a great job of exporting content from DS to Blender (including fully rigged Genesis figures and clothing with all the needed JCM's, and quite good conversion of the shaders to cycles). There is another exporter by mCasual called "mcjTeleBlender 4" that also looks quite promising as well (you can find more information about it on in the Freebie forum at DAZ 3D).

Personally, I prefer DS to Poser. The UI just works better for me, and most of the content, IMHO, far exceeds what is available for Poser (though Le Femme may help Poser to catch up). However, there is a big caveat in the previous statement .... I prefer a more or less real 3D style, not a comic style (see my galley for reference). So with that in mind, Poser content may well perfectly meet your needs. I do think if/when you feel so inclined, you should definitely check out DS to see if the UI and workflow work better for you, but that would only be if you decide you need content, or if maybe Blender isn't quite capable of delivering a workflow you want. If you are able to use Iray to create your comics, then I think DS would give you the view port visual capabilities you are looking for using Iray preview in the viewport. However, you might run into some similar issues to Poser with things not displaying correctly in the view port if using 3Delight.

Anyway, welcome to the world of 3D, where very little is as easy as it seems it should be!

DustRider posted at 3:24PM Fri, 23 August 2019 - #4360268

Hello HKHan99, and welcome to the madness of 3D!

I've read your threads in the other two forums, and thought this forum may be the best place to post a response (the Blender forum would have worked too, but I use DAZ Studio a lot, so this is the one I chose). As you may well have already gathered, there is no simple response to your questions. Everyone tends to have their favorite software, often for different reasons, but one thing that is fairly common is the closer the logic in the workflow and the design of the UI fit with the way you think (especially when first starting out), the easier it will be to learn. It sounds like the logic and UI in Blender 2.8 is a good fit for you. I'm just learning Blender 2.8 myself, and I'm finding it very easy to use, with a lot of great features (soooo much better than the previous UI).

I should give you a bit of background, so you know where I'm coming from and you can better evaluate my opinions. I've been involved with 3D of some sort since about 1990, I started using Poser with version 3, I started dabbling with DAZ Studio (DS) when is was just a beta product (i.e. before is was version 1). I did my first real modeling with Cinema 4D (version 6), and then Carrara Studio (version 2), and have also used Hexagon for modeling. I've used several other 3D software packages, but those really don't pertain at all to what you are doing (more for technical landscapes and virtual archaeological site reconstructions). My focus has never been for any type of comic book style renders, so I'm fairly ignorant there! I have also had a real love/hate relationship with Poser. It has always seemed to have so much potential, but for what I've wanted it has always fallen a bit short, with the last version (Poser 11) being the first version I didn't upgrade to (even though I was very interested in Superfly, it seemed like it was rushed out the door, and didn't have what I was looking for). So, I'm not a big Poser user, but have had a fair amount of experience with it.

If you decide on Blender "only", the biggest hurdle might be finding the figures you want for creating your comics in a native Blender format. I have no doubt that Cycles (or Eevee) will be able to provide the comic render style you want, and the real-time view port rendering of Eevee, or near real-time view port rendering of Cycles will no doubt be perfect for the view port visualization you want. The real question is can you find enough affordable pre-made content in Blender format for your needs (or depending on your needs, you may have the time and desire to create your own, which makes the pre-made content issue mute).

For the content side of things, Poser or DS might be the perfect "addon" for Blender. I know there is a way to export from Poser to Blender (IIRC the steps needed are in the Blender forum here), but don't have any experience with it. I have tried the diffeomorphic plugin for DS, and it does a great job of exporting content from DS to Blender (including fully rigged Genesis figures and clothing with all the needed JCM's, and quite good conversion of the shaders to cycles). There is another exporter by mCasual called "mcjTeleBlender 4" that also looks quite promising as well (you can find more information about it on in the Freebie forum at DAZ 3D).

Personally, I prefer DS to Poser. The UI just works better for me, and most of the content, IMHO, far exceeds what is available for Poser (though Le Femme may help Poser to catch up). However, there is a big caveat in the previous statement .... I prefer a more or less real 3D style, not a comic style (see my galley for reference). So with that in mind, Poser content may well perfectly meet your needs. I do think if/when you feel so inclined, you should definitely check out DS to see if the UI and workflow work better for you, but that would only be if you decide you need content, or if maybe Blender isn't quite capable of delivering a workflow you want. If you are able to use Iray to create your comics, then I think DS would give you the view port visual capabilities you are looking for using Iray preview in the viewport. However, you might run into some similar issues to Poser with things not displaying correctly in the view port if using 3Delight.

Anyway, welcome to the world of 3D, where very little is as easy as it seems it should be!

Hi, DustRider, and thanks for your detailed response. Since I already have Poser, I'll certainly use content from it in Blender, and I see that there are a lot of free models out there on the web in various formats, many of which Blender imports. I have no issues with using that kind of stuff if it's practical, but I am just starting to explore what's involved. It seems that Blender doesn't import most of them with their materials attached, even when I can see materials in the folder, but I don't know why. A couple of buildings I experimented with did open up with flat colors, but nothing like what appears in the promo material. So I guess my next step is to figure out the import/export, file compatibility and conversion issues. I should probably open a thread in the Blender forum about this, because what I read in the manual seemed to pass right through me (possibly I should read it again when I'm fully awake...). I agree about Poser- from my limited experience, it seems like if all the stuff they sell you actually worked together it would be a great program, but instead it's like owning a whole bunch of programs made by different people for different purposes with some third-party work-arounds thrown in to make it 'work.' I don't know about Daz, but it seems like Blender is now developing so rapidly and has such a large base of people actively involved in building the product, or support materials for it, that it won't be long before Poser has to a do a top-to-bottom redesign and recode of the whole shebang, along with updating all the materials so they work in all aspects of the program in a uniform way, or there just won't be any reason to own it. In fact, I think right now the biggest obstacle to Blender invading the Poser demographic is that they don't care, and the second is that, although their tutorials are very clear and well organized, they suffer from the same problem that I see in pretty much all software tutorials - they are bottom-up, instead of top-down. So you learn a lot of little things, that, in the end, you need to make something you want in Blender, but it's hard to keep it straight because you can't actually do anything with the knowledge and see how it all fits together until you get at least a passing command of the whole thing- which is pretty big. If they started with complete scenes and objects, and taught each of these units around them, you'd see what everything was good for right away and you'd know how it fit in the workflow. The company that does this is going to kick everyone's ass.

If you are looking at toon optionsin Daz, PWToon is very good in DS: SAMPLE Visual Style Shaders are my goto product. SAMPLE There is Toony Cam, there is the OSO product, Linerender, and many more. You gotta find a style that works and go for it :) Even just render with poser in 3d for toon characters! SAMPLE

Or you can always export to blender and use it for toon render...via diffeomorphics script, or mcjteleblender,