It depends on how complex the item you want to model is. I've been able to create quite a few things from poser alone such as weapons, a mug, furnature, a key and other simple items, but for more complex modeling you need somthing better. I'd say poser is the easiest 3D model application there is in existance right now though so if you can get it done in Poser its definately preferable to useing something else.

I'm not too worried. Even if that bill did pass it says you can't render an image that is Indistinguishable from a real minor. Mil Girls are quite distinguishable! But I agree in the future as models become more and more realistic they shouldn't be limiting us. I always thought child porn was illegal just because it involved abuseing minors in order to create it. Obviously there is no abuse in sculpting a 3D mesh. Where would it all end? It's far to subjective! I have a little more faith in the Supreme Court though, I'd be really surprised if it would uphold that type of nonsense.

If its not running well on YOUR system I'm surprised. If you have an Nvidia graphics card you can change the Direct 3D Mipmap detail level to "High Performance" rather then "Best image quality". That should give you an increase in your ability to scroll around on the screen, without much difference in image quality. If you go one step further to "Best performace" you'll notice a drop in preview image quality, but your full renders should look the same. All Nvidia cards have this option under Control Panel--->Display---->Advanced---->Name of video Card---->Additional propertys----->Direct 3d Settings... Whew!

I've had the same problem you have. I don't think many games are anti-aliased now. You can force the video card to do it but at the expense of speed. I generally don't antialias character sprites. But if you do, I suggest rendering over a dark grey background. Then make the sprites transparent part (the background) black which will leave a dark grey outline around the character, however against most backgrounds it won't be very noticable. If I'm creating a multi-layerd screen with transparentcy I render the layered part against a color that closely matches what its going to be in front of that seems to work quite well. But if your character is going to be in front of many different colors it won't work. It would be nice if we could just anti-alias the inside of the characters, and not the outer edges.