As far as animation, the best I can tell is that not much has changed as far as the process itself. I've seen a few incredible animations (one was called "Dress" and can be found at billy-factory.com) that have come out using the features - particularly the cloth / collision stuff. I'm excited about that.

I've watched people here trying to understand the materials - the "nodes." I hadn't heard that terminology before but I've found that they're like the shaders I have in Lightwave. Quite impressive, tremendous potential, but a bit of a learning curve. That explains to me why some have had questions or issues with them. They can be quite complicated.

I don't think I'll use the hair much for a while. I'm not a good hair stylist and I dounbt I'd be willing to deal with the added render time. I'm using Poser and Lightwave right now and I don't even add the hair in Lightwave (which I could).

I've seen some people complaining with frustration about the face room but I've seen some people (not just Pokeydot) put out some really neat character variations using the face room. I'm very excited about that.

I wish they'd have included Bezier spline curves in the graph editor, the ability to add markers in the timeline, and some other basic features found in other animation packages. However, those are "wants." Sooner or later Poser will evolve to have them. Bryce doesn't have 'em and Flash doesn't have 'em, so I can't say they're "standard" but they are quite common. Maybe P5.5.

These are simply my observations from reading the trials and tribulations around here. I haven't read the manual yet. I will when the time comes!

Before they made me they broke the mold!
http://home.roadrunner.com/~kflach/