Thanks for this info ernyoka1 ... due to my lack of interest or knowledge of Poser 5 I did not realize the P4 models are in there.

All very good advice given here from people who know their stuff. Not sure if you are starting out with Poser 4 or Poser 5, but I would suggest getting familiar with the program and the feel for using the characters that come with it b4 spending a lot of money. There are not a multitude of free items for the basic Poser 5, but if you are starting out in Poser 4 there are more available free and store items than you could ever use in one lifetime.

I'll give $20. for Poser5...just so I can say I tried it.

Diane Griffith [DTHUREGRIF] has a real nice one called Aaron that I just recently downloaded...but swear I can't remember the d/l site. It may have been from freestuff here or at Renderotica, not sure which one.

Good point xantor...I think Daz should address this issue sometime during this version phase of the public Beta test. If they are wanting to capture a new first-time audience to 3d they are going to have to offer something built in and ready to use with it.

I try to give credit when I can, especially on free stuff. I always add the name of the creator at the end of the file name when I d/l the item, but of course this is lost once the file is installed unless the creator directs the install to a folder containing their name. These folks who support our hobby with their efforts out of the goodness of their hearts deserve recognition. I don't worry as much about commercial products, they receive plenty of promotion by other means. Only when it is an exceptional product with highly unique features do I make a serious effort to credit. Not a complaint, but I do wish all who give away or sell would make their file paths leaning more toward the item name than a vanity name. [I.E., Runtime/Libraries/Character/Vic3/Hilda and not Runtime/Libraries/Character/Joan_Xkpt/Abdu_49]

I see a lot of good images in the galleries which would be much better with a bit more postwork. Of course in Poser4 the most noticable boo-boos are the elbow/knee folding. In Poser 5 the thing I notice most is 'hair floating' off the scalp which should be taken care of b4 rendering but could be touched up in postwork. As to representation of a product, most of the graphics in the store are marked as 'no postwork'...I never buy something on the basis of a gallery render. I go by the pix at the store w/o postwork and can determine from them how much postwork was necessary to make the gallery image look good. I enjoy the postwork process more than actually putting the image together...postwork is where you can put all your of graphic skills into play.

One of the main purposes of D|S being free is to promote sales of current/future Daz products and their new themed Content packs. And couldn't those without Poser download the stand alone characters such as ones found at Sixus1 and some of the new toon gals plus props found at so many sites? The file types are all compatible with Poser so should be with D|S beta.

I had no problem with the PDF...using the full version of Acrobat, but it was slower than backwards loading in my system so I just printed it out while I had it up. Using print manager and graphics as greyscale, it printed off faster than loading in.

At least you got a lighted pic after 117 min of render. My first render only took 23 min, just a simple base figure with no clothes, props or frills...part of the the face was visible, one arm and one leg were viewable and everything else was black. I do not like the lighting setups from scratch.

It was a 1-hour 17-min d/l on my dialup connection [no resume d/l software allowed]...but worth it to play around with I guess. I won't bother with anymore updates, will wait until the final goodie hits the net, maybe by then I can afford a larger monitor... 17" is not enough real estate for the program IMO. Not complaining...free is cheap, so if it doesn't work the uninstall button will.

I have used everything from an old Brownie box camera [sold a mag cover of a shot from it for $75. when I was 16] up to studio cameras. My suggestion is b4 you spend big bucks for anything... go for used equipment. You can get some very nice equipment at the larger camera outlet stores or ads from the back pages of photography mags, and if you are just beginning you need to learn the fundamentals first. Automatics are nice, but IMO you don't really learn serious photography with them. Going used allows you to not only pick up your basic camera, but with the bucks you save over new you can pick up some accessories to go with the camera.

Regardless of what settings you use for your VM [2x RAM is pretty safe for min&max], be sure to reset your VM from time to time as a routine disk maintenance procedure. Files being swapped in and out on a regular basis do have a tendency to become corrupt at times.

Go figure some of the 'touchy' issues some of these sites have. Makes you wonder if some of these sites have the right to use the tag 'community' anyplace in their promotion. A community is a collective body working together for the good of all...if you wish to isolate yourself into a small group within a community you have a 'clique'...LOL.

Sometimes it takes quite a while b4 things get the OK and posted in the freestuff...I guess due to work load of the admin and how many items have to be reviewed at any given time. I see nothing wrong with posting alternate links for those who don't want to wait for one sites approval. I am not sure how the RO TOS deals with this, but I have seen others post links in the forum prior to approval by RO.