First of all - thanks for all the advice so far! It's been very helpful, and you've given this newbie some great info so far! Now, I just ordered a new system (Dell, 2.2gHz Pentium, yada yada yada, great deal $450. Free printer, free 17" monitor, double RAM, double HD, etc. etc. Awesome buy!). Should get it in a couple of weeks. Now I am at the point where I need to decide which Poser to get. 5 or Artist. Amazon has Poser 5 for $139 (can this be correct???), and the best price I've seen for artist is $119 at Curious. If thats the case, then for price alone I'd get 5, however... I don't think I plan on using a lot of the 5 extra features, but I don't know enough about them to know if they'd be worth it over Artist. Reason being, DAZ recommends 4 over 5 for its models (which I plan on buying and using extensively). Also, 4 is supposed to run a LOT faster. I'd rather have a fast version with the tools I need than a slow version with extra stuff I won't use. HELP???? Which version should I get? I plan on using Poser for 2 purposes. One, to try and produce something remotely (dreaming here!) near the artwork I've seen at Renderosity (especially SkoolDaze...he ROCKS). Basically, a bunch of one-offs, so reuseing specific characters is not an issue. Second, I want to use it for producing comics. Not amime style, but more American style. Think Crossgen. This implies recurring characters, and I think some of the Poser 5 features with dynamic clothing and hair, wind, etc. might make it easier to use a character over and over and just mod the clothes and hair without having to do it all in post. Any thoughts? I did ask this question earlier, but now I've got a bit more product knowledge and a better idea of what I want to do, so this is the last time I'll inquire ;-) Thanks!!!! Jim

Attached Link: http://www.philc.net

If its only $20 difference I'd say go with Poser 5. I've found it runs fine on an adequately spec'ed machine. DAZ's preferences may have something to do with them developing a program that could directly compete with Poser 5. Curious Labs info indicates that all Poser 4 models will work in Poser 5. I do not think I'm alone in creating clothing which includes a Poser 5 version. I'm sure there are many others and this situation will, I feel, continue.

Amazon often has very low prices on Poser 5, how they pull it off is beyond me. But take advantage of it when you can ;-) I have the same processor as you have (together with 1 Gb RAM) and I don't find Poser 5 particularly slow. Make sure you run Win NT/2000/XP though, Poser 5 has some issues with Win 95/98/ME. I'm very happy with some of the Poser 5 features, happy enough to never switch back to Poser 4. The absolute highlights are: - Better library management with multiple folder levels. - The Material Room, a huge improvement over Poser 4. I use the Cloth Room sometimes. When I have need for it, it absolutely rocks. I'm also happy with the FireFly renderer, despite all the slandering it gets. OK, slower than the Poser 4 renderer, but results are good. And if you don't want to use it, the Poser 4 renderer is still there. The Hair Room is tricky, but there are a few ready-made hairs out there that have proven to be usable. I could do without this feature though, transmapped hair is good enough. I have never used the Face Room for anything, mostly because I never use the Poser 5 figures... Considering the prices you have at hand, I would go for Poser 5.

One more thing: I have never had any problem with DAZ figures in Poser 5.

Thanks! More food for thought!

Amazon has Poser 5 for $139 (can this be correct???) .... >> Amazon often has very low prices on Poser 5, how they pull it off is beyond me. They make up for it with keyboard sales. If you have an adequately spec'd system (you might want to invest in extra memory), by all means get Poser 5. For that extra $20, you'll have additional figures to play with (Judy, Don, and the P5 kids) and dynamic cloth items that can be made to work on Michael and Victoria with a little tweaking. Poser 5's cartoon shader can produce some interesting results, also, although it doesn't draw lines quite as well as the cartoon display mode. And you won't have to worry about crosstalk when you have multiple figures in the same scene.

"They make up for it with keyboard sales." You mean from the Poser 5 users who smash theirs in frustration? ;) The opinions on Poser 5 seem to be pretty mixed around here. Some people have had good luck with it and it's improved Material editor, and others see it as a nightmare, full of bugs and unusual glitches. Since the prices are so similar though, I can see why Poser 5 would still probably be the better deal. I would just suggest taking a little more time to hear differing opinions. I've done fairly extensive experimentation with cartoon and anime-style renders in Poser, and I honestly don't believe that you can achieve totally satisfactory results without some postwork. I also don't believe that Poser 5 offers any real improvements in creating comic-style art over Poser 4 and the Pro Pack. Anyway, just my thoughts as always. I don't mean to sound like I'm bashing Poser 5, but my old reliable Poser 4 is still doing everything I need it to. :) Thanks, take care. SnowS

I happen to like Poser 5 myself - it does a good job and works just fine. One thing, if you do get Poser 5, download the Service Pack 3 for it - corrects a number of bugs, improves stability and firefly renders become a little faster. I would definitely agree with using it in either NT/XP or 2000 as well. I have 1 Gb RAM in my PC together with an Athlon XP2000 CPU and it runs just fine. Shadowdancer

I'll be using a 2.2 gHz Pentium, XP Home, and I'll be upgrading the RAM ASAP. So far, sounds like P5 since the cost is very close - though I'm a little nervious about all the trouble with V3, M3, and injection morphing and getting it to work properly.

I believe a lot of people who has encountered problems with the injection system has tried to move the injection files around or installed them in another runtime directory than the standard Poser 5 one... Just let the DAZ installer place them where it suggests them to be placed and it should work OK. Your system should cope just fine with all this, but don't hold back on that RAM. Poser eats it for breakfast...

I love the smaller improvements Poser 5 has over 4. Being able to organize morph dials into subfolders saves all that scrolling up and down through the dial stack. And the new library system does away with overcrowding - especially the Pose library, which can get so full in P4 that the end ones aren't accessible. You can even set up multiple Runtimes (although morph injection folders should stay in your primary Runtime). It's great not to have to load null figures to prevent crosstalk, although there are a few products that need crosstalk to work. So it's not just big stuff like the material editor and dynamic cloth and hair that you get for the $20. HTH - Elisa/gryffnn

"They make up for it with keyboard sales."

You mean from the Poser 5 users who smash theirs in frustration? ;)

I was referring to that $1000000 keyboard Amazon was "selling" last week.

I also don't believe that Poser 5 offers any real improvements in creating comic-style art over Poser 4 and the Pro Pack.

Unlike the cartoon display modes, the Toon shader lets you use textures and transparency. I'll admit, though, that there is considerable room for improvement.

Snowsultan made a big point...don't overlook it... "I also don't believe that Poser 5 offers any real improvements in creating comic-style art over Poser 4 and the Pro Pack. " AND THE PRO PACK....which is additonal cash for P4...this comes in Poser 5 at no additional cost...all the same features...extra cartoon characters, multiple camera views, etc etc..python scripting, ( and the scripts do come in handy, even if you don't know a drip about python)... setup room..bones and so forth...