I was wondering if anyone had suggestions or favorites for animal figures. I would like to start off with a big cat of some kind or possibly a wolf figure. I am just finding it diffuclt to tell how well some of the figures I've seen for sale might really render. I was hoping that I could get recommendations from any here who might actually be using some.

Dragons! Horses... Pegusai/Unicorns? I dunno, list anything remotely fantasy and I'd probably pounce it. Dogs, cats, wolves and panther type things are always good too. Birds? Don't see many falcons or eagles or other misc. birds.

Any favorites you would care to share? I have been eyeing Daz's Panther.

The panther is nice, but compared to the Poser lion, it hasn't seen a lot of third-party support (textures, morphs, characters, etc.).

Even the worst animal figures will benefit from a high-quality texture (example: the Poser cat with Daio's Purrfection textures).

A wolf figure is already included in Posers 4-5. Lyne Masamitsu has an excellent expansion pack of morphs and textures at Vista Internet Products, bloodsong has a free remapped version of the wolf at 3D Menagerie, wolfie has a remapped wolf (with additional morphs) here in Free Stuff, and I have a Mimic-ready version and some replacement eyes that I'd be glad to share.

BIG LIZARDS! Like the Cuban Rock Iguana. A well modeled one could easily take on morphs to become a Rhino Iguana, Spiny Tailed Mexican Iguana, monitor, or even some other bizzare sci-fi lizard with spiky teeth and a long forked tongue! Godzill will pose nude for it too ;p

Heh, well Igohigh, thanks for the...er..well thanks but maybe I should stick to the big cat or wolf. Little Dragon, thank you for your suggestions and links. It was new stuff for me to look though.

OK. Wish list for poser animals which haven't been done yet to my knowledge - how about some extinct animals? A dodo. An original sabertooth tiger. One of the large, flightless predatory birds. A Tasmanian Tiger/Thylacine. JUst a few I'd love to see, especially a dodo.

Hmmm... I believe that the original question concerned an existing animal to buy and play with. The DAZ eagle with Bloodsong's expansion pack (more than 20 hawks and falcons). There are other morphs and textures for the eagle, too... it can be turned into a raven or parrot. The parrot can be used in scenes with crusty old pirates or maiden aunts having tea. The raven can be used in kid stories (little prince and chatty family councillor) or gothic horror. And eagles can go whereever they want to, from war scenes to high fantasy. So whatever kind of art you want to make, the eagle with add-ons ought to be a very nice package. Carolly

AkoSteve, sign up for DAZ's Platinum Club, if you haven't already done so. With their current customer-appreciation sale, you'll get 50% off all DAZ original products (including the panther). Over twenty animals are in the Platinum Club, which means you can get those for less than $2 apiece. And just for joining, you'll also get that fat bundle of free DAZ products (which apparently includes the camel, bee, tuna, gorilla, and chimpanzee).

I agree with little dragon Lyne's lion is great the best no cat at DAZ can reach this quality

Little Dragon, Where did you hear about that bundle of free gifties? I was just at the DAZ site eyeballing PC membership, and didn't see anything there. The [search] and a couple other pages weren't working, and some items were in the wrong category, so I suppose that they are updating things all over. Carolly

Thank you for the Eagle suggestion, Carolly. I'll take another look at that one. I am mainly just compiling a list at the moment for when I will be ready to buy. Also, if you click the PC link under products you'll see the notice Litte Dragon was talking about. You might have also received it in an e-mail today as well. Little Dragon-I actually am part of the PC at Daz which is partly why I decided to ask the community here which figures they might recommend. So many choices and so little cash to spend on them... Thanks everyone for your great input!

hauksdottir:

http://www.daz3d.com/products/platclub.php

Scroll down to where it says "Get Over $500 in FREE DAZ Products!" (about halfway down the page); there's a big illustration showing what you'll receive.

becareful about which animals from daz your buying. older animals had textures as seperate purchases and 1 animal that looked low in price suddenly became expensive with the animal AND the texture. PClub discount helps that, as well as the animals that Daz has put in the Pclub, but just a FYI look at the descriptions before buying. Gobbles is a cute character and has some freebies in the Daz Free archive. I have basically bought all the PClub animals, the Charger horse gets the most use by me because all my character can ride him, and he's nice by himself. Just depends on what your gunna be doing with it. The Toony character are great for holiday renders, bday cards etc and just fun to goof and play with, but again, it all depends on what kinda of art and fun you want to have.

I've been searching for textures and poses for the Poser frog. Has anyone seen any around?

I sure haven't but then I've just been browsing the more furry animals...