hi circle, i share your opinion. i am allready using poser the way you described (with max), though i used charakter studio more and more over the last time (using skinned poser figures). i was only saying that because so much people wrote that max is so expensive and you could get the same with p5... i am full of hopes too, like most people here, but since not much is known about p5, and the pro pack was REALY disappointing for me, i am not that entusiastic (i hope you can understand that word, not shure if it is english... ;-D) happy rendering leyla