Here's a question. Do most people use stuff that they have downloaded or bought, or create their own stuff. I know from personal experience that when I create a picture from things that I have downloaded, I feel that I have somehow cheated, even though I composed the whole thing. Is this something others feel? And second, can you really call it your work then. On a side note, can someone tell me if the figures and props that poser comes with liscence free? example... If I was to make a graphic for a web site using the hand models, can I then call that graphic my own, or does Curious Labs own them. Dragontales

I use downloaded stuff in Poser, and "home made" stuff in Bryce (when it's working - lost my serial number and had to reinstall D'oh!) because I'm not much of a modeller, but Bryce is good for simple terrain and geometric shapes. You can use any images you create from the "base" figures for free - the only problems come when you attempt to redistribute the figures in any form. Other figures usually include explicit licensing agreements, which vary from creator to creator.

Attached Link: http://home.earthlink.net/~donaldwalbert/

Look at it this way... Whether the models, textures, poses, etc. come from the Poser program or from revision work of other peole, none of it is "original." All are based on Poser/Zygote originals. What is Original is the image, which is yours. The electronic Poser (etc.) stuff is like paints, canvas, etc. They are Raw Materials for Artistic Creation. Microsoft does not own a document you make with their software. Adobe does not own an image you create. Just as Grumbacher does not own an image you create with their oil paints. You can publish the image as original and as yours. It is not cheating or copying in that sense. How many people can or do mix up their own oil paints, or make their own pastels from scratch? How many can create a Poser program like Larry Weinberg? These things are tools and raw materials. Feel free to create. I have posted at my website commissioned illustration work which features Poser figures and prop models. It is my work and I am free to post the images without anyone's permission. Relax and keep on Posering! 3Don

I think it's a personal thing. Before I started building my own models, I got a great thrill out of using the downloads and putting together scenes and animations. Now it sort of lends an extra bit of creative pleasure to use my own stuff. But I still use everybody else's as well. A previous posting asked what the purpose of Poser is. I guess it boils down to whatever turns you on. Commercially I use Poser mostly to set up scenes to redraw on paper, to make storyboards, etc. But, as Don said, you own your own pictures, regardless of whose tools you use to create it. Berge

Consider the Poser figures as a photographer might consider his models. Some are paid, some are not, but the photos he makes are clearly his work.

Poser is the tool....I just have this lil habit of making everything I download...whether free, or from Daz, my own. That means, a lil tweak, here and there in the meshes. The only thing I don't fluff around with are things like backgrounds, or jewelry props. Even hair, i have to change just a bit to make it my own...or, sort of my own. The original creator is still the owner.