I have seen some realistic characters done in poser 4. How are these done. With lots of practice, asking questions and going through tutorials. Artistic talent is always a plus. >>Do you make texture maps of yourselves? Some people do. Cake1 has a tutorial on how to do that. All the Poser models have templates that you can draw on to create human textures (or alien, it's up to you.) There are also a lot of textures available free or commercially. >>are there higher end models you can buy for poser? There are default models that come with the program, and commercial models that you can purchase. The most commonly purchased models are Victoria (Vicki or Millie - she was originally called the Millenium woman or Millie for short), Michael (Mike), Stephanie, and Dina (variants include Vina and Dina V). The first 3 are purchased exclusively through Daz3d. The fourth can be found at here, among other sites. The models themselves are created in other programs. Poser isn't very good at creating models. (Poser 5 may be better.) One nice thing about Poser is that many models have embedded morphs to change the shape of the model so you can get different looking people with the models. There are 2 versions of Vicki and Mike currently, with substantiated rumors of a Vicki 3 coming out. Vicki 2 and Mike 2 have more morphs. (IMO, it's worth the upgrade.) >>Thanks to all. De nada, and welcome to the cult ... um club. ;-)