Hi, I am about to leap into the world of Michael and Victoria 3 and need some advice. How important are the morph packs? For instance, when I purchase the Michael 3 character, won't I be able to alter his features with the dials, just like I alter the Poser 4 characters' features?

NO, you need the morph packs to alter his features. Both M3 and V3 use a morph injection system which means that the dials don't appear until you select them from the Pose library.

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"you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love." - Warsan Shire

Thanks. What about the faces? Can they be manipulated without morph packs, or do I need head packs as well as body packs? (This is all so new to me...)

You need the whole lot I'm afraid. I don't think M3 comes with any morphs at all (I'm not totally sure cos I installed the packs at the same time.)

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"you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love." - Warsan Shire

Yes, you should buy the base, the head morph pack and the body morphs. You'll get a good price if you buy now, because you'll get "Platinum Club" prices on everything. (30% off of all DAZ originals.) You might want to buy the textures, too, but it's not necessary. Well, you do need textures, but you can buy textures elsewhere for cheaper, if you want. There are even some available for free, I think.

Oh, and if money's an issue, don't buy hair. Download hair for free here: http://digitalbabes2.com/ It's not only free, it's better than the hair DAZ sells. Really!

The base figures include the Mimic morphs (blink, brow movement, phonemes, etc.), some expression morphs, and the spandex morphs. The morph packs have all the shaping morphs.

randym77, (or anybody else) you mentioned cheaper or free textures for M3 and V3 -- Where can I get these? Thanks.

Look in Free Stuff. Link is at the top of this page. Often, free textures are listed as "characters," with names. ("Jane for V3," "Joe for M3," etc.) Generally, free and low-cost textures aren't as high-resolution as the ones DAZ sells. So if you want a photorealistic look, you'll probably have to buy a texture. For low-cost textures, check out Cin's Leanansidhe (for V3) and Nicodemos (for M3), both at PoserPros.com. They are very pale textures with transmapped brows, which makes them very versatile. You can change the skin and brow/lash color to any color you want, in the material room. They are only $2.49 each.

Thanks.

Attached Link: http://www.rendervisions.com

I just downloaded a nice free character/texture for V3 tonight: Laurel for V3. It's a complete character, with INJ/REM pose files for the face and body and MAT files for P4/PP and P5. You can download from the Rendervisions Free Stuff. It's in the Poser/Character section. (And if you like it, drop in at the Poser forum, and tell Karen thank you. ;-)

The hair is the Flo hair from Morphography. It's also free, and can be downloaded here:

http://www.morphography.uk.vu/

Thanks for the tip!