Hello. I will be getting a new computer system soon. When I do I will be getting Poser 4, Paint Shop and Phot Shop. I will be using these to creat characters that I and my gaming groups use in roleplaying games (Fantasy and superhero). What I need is some help in creating heroic and super heric men and women. Magic and super powers effects. Armor and costumes (maybe some props) Any help will be apreciated.

Attached Link: http://www.3dcc.com

Well the freestuff here is loaded with props and such - just remember most of them are not to be used in commercial images. The 3DCC is definately the place to go for comicbook heroes - and rthey have links to many online 3d comics. :) (Hi Doug!) And you can always ask people here questions - we tend to be a fairly approachable bunch. And we were all new once :) Lyrra

Attached Link: http://www.3d-cc.com

Doug, Remember a while back I asked if you wanted my superhero X? (unnamed random superhero pfm) Well right after that youall had space problems so I put him up here instead. Do you still want him? Lyrra

What programs will be good to use in character creation and presentation?

MisterD, Well for brand new characters (all your own work) will take a) a modeler like Rhino or 3DSMax and b) lots of time (the learning curve is ferocious) To modify existing characters - all you need is Poser, possibly the propack (I don't have it) and possibly some additional characters to start with. DAZ3d sells poser figures, including the very versatile Michael and Victoria characters that many poeople here use for various reasons. An image editor to make textures for the figures and the figures clothing is a good idea. Photoshop is the image editor of choice, but if you haven't the $$$ then Paintshop does fairly well. You can render images in poser - but poser does not do true reflections (just this weird reflection mapping thing) and it is complicated to set up scenes to place your figures in. I don't render in Poser, so you'd have to ask someone else more questions. I prefer to set up characters in Poser, export, then render them in Bryce5 - which is a full environment creating program. When I say environment, I mean that it makes landforms, water, rocks, trees, clouds and ambient atmosphereic effects - including haze, fog, sun/moonlight and reflections. But its costs $$$. (doesn't everything?) It's not a modeling program like Lightwave or Max - so don't expect to be making new characters there. So you can start with Poser and an image editor if you're just making rpg characters. That should get you started at the very least :) Poser imports a number of the very common 3dfiles, so that will you get you props and background scenes. Make sure you have a huge harddrive and a cdburner - you will collect hundreds of megs of stuff. Guaranteed. And the files themselves can get preetty hefty. :) Lyrra