Just my 2 cents - or whatever that may be in Euro's...? If you want to do freestuff on a hobby basis, why pay to be able to work for nothing ;o) A good freeware modeler is plenty. I use Amapi 4.15 - free, and immensely powerful - but there are other good choices mentioned in the posts above. I'd pick the one with the most tutes on the kind of work I'd want to do. Check the tutes section here on R'osity. If you want to do go into doing commercial Poser Stuff, looking for reasonably-priced apps that makes modeling and texturing quick and efficient would seem like a good idea. Picking one for which there is plenty of tutes is also a good idea. Plenty of good choices mentioned above. Personally, I use TrueSpace, partly because I know it well, partly because of the excellent "Magnetic Vertex" plugin that'll "shrink wrap" a mesh around a Poser figure automatically, and thus spare you the initial drudgery of fitting a base mesh to a figure, before you can get into the detail work. If you want to go in to professional 3D and animation, I'm not working in that business, so I can only speak on the basis of the the job adverts, articles and interviews I've seen. Most of them refer to 3D Max, Lightwave, Softimage and Maya. Whatever one's opinion of these apps (and their prices!), they seem to be more or less compulsory. Then again, if you want to work as in pro 3D or animation, you probably shouldn't waste your time on Poser - although I think/hope that'll change in the not-too-distant future ;o)