Hi all - Actually, I'm not even a newbie. I was wondering if Poser would be a good buy for me. I recently picked up 3ds max and intend on learning about it and character studio inside and out over the next couple of years. I'm also learning C++ and ColdFusion, so I don't have gobs of free time to spend with another program. Is Poser used a great deal within the web development and video game fields? My main concern is that I take time away from practicing other skills (Flash, C++, 3ds), in favor of developing skill that isn't as sought after in the marketplace. Can 3ds do what Poser can do or is Poser, (by itself... I have no intention of buying add-on after add-on), the better character modeling and animation program? Thanks for any help, it's tough to know what to pursue when you're just starting out. :)

Poser is easier. It is getting closer to professional level, but is not there yet. I don't believe it is being used that much for video games. Yet. Poser 5 may change that, but there's no ETA currently for it. 3DS + Character Studio will give you more over time if you want to make your own stuff. It has a much steeper learning curve. It is used for video games, I believe. A good number of skills that you learn for Poser can be transferred to 3DS: lighting effects, texturing, etc. The mechanics will be different, but the artistic aspects will be the same. Again, Poser is easier to get started with, so if you feel that you need to develop your artistic skills, Poser would be a good learning program. Poser, by itself, is not a character modeller. You team it up with 3DS or another program to create/alter models to fit your needs. Poser animation is okay, from what I've heard, but 3DS is better. In general, 3DS is far more powerful and far more diverse, but far harder to use. (IMHO, 3DS is evil, but that's another story.) Poser is much more limited (though we've really expanded its capabilties in these forums) but what it does, it does well and in a comparitively easy manner. Good luck!

Not entirely sure about the game development aspect of poser characters they are far to mesh heavy to be used in games, but I have seen numerous publications using poser (the new book but Stephen Hawkins - Universe in a Nut Shell uses poser throughout...almost all the illustrations.) If you are competent enough in max( and giving yourself a couple of yearas will make you that) then poser is not really needed unless you want to have full figures right away. there are a few plugins from digimation that do character creation for you , a nice feature is you wanna see how they got their mesh...but after a few months to a year of work ou will be able to model your own high res characters right in max. As for animation in poser i wouldn[t even bother...I started doing a short in poser and after 2 months had about 2minutes of footage, scraped it and moved over to max, grabbed a poser figure and brought it into max, and after a week I now am at the point where I was in poser, and qwith added effects and such as well. Do not get me wrong though poser is a great product and I do not think that I would ever give it up and when v5 comes out I will be one of the 1st in line to get it...I think that you should stick with wht you got, although poser is very cheap compaired to fgoing to school and purcghasing 3dstudio...it is under $200 and you can find versions of poser3 for free on varuious computer magazine cd's. What the hell get it and if ya do not like it (I am quite sure that you qwill) you are not out that much cash. Ps sorry ita so long...this has been my longest post here...hazaaa

Thank you! 3ds is used fairly widely in the game industry, but I didn't know if Poser was or not. Heh... 3ds can be pretty evil... maybe I'll be able to transfer some of what I learn over to something like Maya, but that's a couple of years away. The curve is slow and frustrating now. No matter what program(s) is/are being used, I'm continually amazed by the work that I see posted here. If, with practice, I can develop half of the kinds of things I've seen on Renderosity, then I'll be a happy guy. :)