Anyone, what do you think is the best app. for modeling clothes for Poser. I have Mac editions of Strata3D and Carrara 2, but wonder if modelers in high-end apps. are so much better? Do they make life much easier?

I will be glad to hear anyones comparisons.

The most often used apps seem to be 3DS Max, Rhino and Cinema 4D - I don't know which of these are available on Mac. You can use just about anything that will give you a .obj file at the end, but it can be tedious with a freebie / cheap modeller.

I use Rhino and I have to say I found it to be the easiest to use but still way powerful and does the job admirably. I tried Strata and thought it was ugly and unpleasant. Unfortunately there are no plans to port Rhino to the Mac OS but they do say it will run fine on a Mac under Virtual PC.

Electranaut,
Have you tried other apps. which you compare Rhino against?

Does Rhino have a better vertex modeler than Carrara, if you are able to compare, or someone else?

How about Lightwave modeler vs Carrara modeler?

This may not help but: I use Rhino as does electranaut, and would second his view that it is comparatively simple/cheap and gives great results. There's also an increasing number of excellent clothing tutorials around (here and at RDNA) Its a NURBS modeller primarily marketted for industrial and marine design. Its main shortcomings are a) that it doesn't import obj. files (you have to use the stand alone converter obj->3DM) so getting stuff in to edit is a bit of a pain. It exports fine to obj. btw. b) it has a pretty rudimentary set of vertex tools so I don't find it very good for producing morphs_ its just a question of shifting vertices about manually. It could do with a 'magnet like tool' On the plus side is that it has a really straightford interface which is highly customisable and you can write little scripts and make your own buttons_ for example to size up and rotate the tiny Poser obj files. The demo version is fully functional with just a limit on the number of saves_ so you can practice almost as long as you want before commiting. Oh and did i say _ excellent documentation and a great set of tutorials. I also own Cinema 4D.6. I find that really difficult_ work flow is really fiddly. Good vertex tools tho!