Go through the first tutorial in the manual. After you dress the clown and get him walking around in an animation, you'll have touched upon many of the basics: how to parent hair and conform clothes and use props so that they shape themselves to or move with the character... how to set up lights and camera controls... how to adjust materials... and finally render. You can use the editing tools and move the joints with the mouse, but the dials are far more precise! Remember to turn off IK the instant you load a figure... otherwise his feet will stay stuck to the floor and you'll get some weird problems with shoes flying into his crotch or hair going south of Sunday the moment you import a prop. Remember also that when you pose a figure, move the figure and not the clothing (keep an eye on the labels under your view window). If you aply a pose while the boot (for example) is active, you may indeeed get twisted knots instead of a nattily-dressed fellow. The tutorials at Poser Arcana are very good. Many of our specialists have tutorials on their sites. I recommend Traveler at Morphworld.30, Bloodsong at 3dMenagerie, PhilC for clothing and Schlabber for poses. When you have specific questions such as "how can I make a person look like he's made of water?" or "I need fog in my cemetary, and it looks like ice cream... help?" we can send you in the direction of an expert. Carolly