If you follow Poser competitors, you may have seen announcements for Quidam from N-Sided (a French software company). I missed the original announcement, but a downloadable demo version is now available, and has been since March. (An updated demo was posted in April.)

Anyway, if you haven't seen it, it's at:
http://www.n-sided.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=26&lang=en

It looks VERY much like Poser, based on the demo movie posted on the website. Especially the tools and the lighting controls. But their morphing system seems more straightforward and possibly more powerful.

System Req's:

• Windows 98 OSR2, Windows 2000 or Windows XP
• Pentium 2 processor, 500 MHz or more (1 GHz recommended)
• 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended)
• 400 MB free disk space
• Monitor with 1024x768 resolution or more
• 24-bits Graphic card (or 32 bits) OpenGL compatible
• 3 button mouse

Demo Limitations:

• 60 days
• No 3D export
• Watermarked background and textures
• Rendered images size limited to viewport
• Limited content
• No access to free online content

Has anybody tried this out yet?

• Jimdoria  ~@>@