Quote - ... it makes me curious as to what people use to design and create the figures and props used in Poser including Daz?

Well, not Poser because it's not a 3D modelling app. Modelling would typically be done in the programs you mentioned, imported into Poser and (if required) rigged.

There's no point moaning about Poser's lack of features compared to (say) Maya, because one costs a couple of hundred dollars and the other a couple of thousand.

Why not try Blender or Wings3D? They're both free.

Show us your shader setup for the eyes.

Quote -
How do you locate a hidden partition, I wonder? 

Control Panels > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Manager

This will show all your disks and how they are partitioned.

There can be huge price differentials between different locations; Adobe aren't the only culprits but they are one of the worst.

For example, when I was about to buy Design Premium CS3 the price in the UK was (I think) £1399. The same package in the US was $1199 (about £850). I had a protracted correspondence with Adobe UK complaining about being overcharged £350, their response being some guff about 'localisation'. I replied that I'd seen a friend's version bought through Adobe UK and despite the localisation, they still managed to spell colour wrong. I don't think they came back to me.

I ended up buying the download version through Adobe's US store for the US price; I'd advise any English speakers to do the same. Unless you enjoy being financially penalised for being foreign.

You could sidegrade to Poser 9  for $99.99 using this offer. Valid until next Sunday.

For P9 / PP2012 users, SnarlyGribbly's EZSkin is great, quick and easy to use (and understand).

But lately I've been doing a lot with BB's VSS - once you've got your head round it, it is hugely flexible.

Err... see the 'Save' button? Top left? Between 'Load' and 'Manage'?

Guess what it does...

With this

OK - then you need to check to see if the lights are parented to the camera, and if they are, un-parent them. The way to do that is to select a light, then Object > Change Parent, and select 'Universe' as the new parent.

Another thing that occurred to me is that the lights might have 'Point At' attributes: if they do, set the 'Point At' to Universe.

Quote - To be more specific i want all my lights to remain stable when i rotate the camera.

That's what I thought you meant, but just to be clear, do you want your lights to move with the camera, or to remain where they are in the scene no matter where the camera is positioned?

You can save lights to the light library (see Chapter 7 of the manual).

If the lights are moving with the camera, they must be parented to it, and while there are circumstances when you might want that behaviour, this isn't one of them. Re-parent the lights either to 'Universe' (which un-parents the lgiht) or to one of the static elements of your scene. Chapter 5 of the manual.

How have your lights become parented to the camera? Were they based on one of the Poser defaults or a commercial set? 

A particularly nasty variant of a trojan has popped up recently; it goes by various names. It will attempt to disable Windows Firewall, and even if your antivirus prog picks it up and removes it, it may well re-spawn next time you start your PC up.

I spent the best part of Tuesday trying to get rid of it, and the thing that worked for me was Windows Defender Offline (search for it) - it'll create a bootable CD, DVD or USB stick which runs before your OS boots up, scans your system - all of it, if need be - and (hopefully) finds and kills this nasty little thing.

There are such material files (mt5) supplied with the PP2012 content pack (Materials > Basic Materials > Woods). These will have to be edited for PP2012 but are a useful start point.

....I just checked them out and they seem insanely complicated for the so-so results they deliver, I'm having a hard time picking the nodes apart to see what's useful and what isn't. Shuy's shader is probably the way to go.

Quote - Any pointers you might be willing to share on how you make those equirectangular HDR maps would be gratefully read, CSpear... I just purchased a Canon T3i and would love to give it something to do.

RobynsVeil, I'll be using something called 'Stitcher' which is now part of the Autodesk stable, because that's what I have. It's a pig of a thing to use though - clunky, slow, idiosyncratic interface - it's main advantage being that it produces great results. And it's expensive.

There's an OpenSource thing called Hugin which might be worth a look. It'll do equirectangular HDR images according to the documentation but I haven't tried that.

BB, yes I've used the effects shader many times - what I'm trying to achieve is a method of generating my own cloud shapes / distributions / positions, rather than rely on stuff from flickr etc. 

The other thing I'm going to have a stab at is to whip out my DSLR and make some equirectangular HDR maps, when time permits.