Hi I just recently finished learning Avid Liquid Pro 7 which was I must say quite the steep learning curve.  I ran into Iclone downloaded it and I love it! However the content seems so much better  for poser  there are Tons of things I want in the market place!  However how much harder is it to learn POSER and how to animate the models etc that Iclone? I found iclone to be easy and I do not want to learn to create the models from scratch just buy premade modles and animate them any info on this is very appreciated.

I've never used Iclone, so I can't compare it to ease of use with Poser.

However I can say, that you don't need to create any models from scratch with Poser.  You can buy pretty much anything you might need already modeled for you, and use them in your still or movie renders.

 - Noel  

Thanks very much as far as learning to animate the characters Key framing etc is it very difficult?

Poser uses Tweening and Keyframing.

I would suggest downloading the demo from e frontier's website and give it a shot.  Just know that Poser 7 is just around the corner, and it does have some animation upgrades to it.

But the Poser 6 demo would give you a good idea of the capabilities.

 - Noel

IClone is definitely easy to use compared to Poser, especially for animation, however the quality of animation output with IClone is pathetic compared to Poser, and limited in what you can animate. The figures for iClone are low resolution compared to Poser content, which makes animation quicker and easier on the same machine, but there is a less flexibility and quality. The output is well below what I would consider acceptable for anything other than animatics (animated storyboarding) or just fooling around. That said, animation with Poser 6 is a bear: a sloppy, inscrutable animation interface (compared to mid-range video editing programs), and quite taxing for even a powerful machine, which is typical of any decent 3D program. I currently have to export my animations as individual still frames and then drop them into a video editor. It's another reason to look forward to Poser 7, which should show a huge improvement compared to Poser 6 for those with higher end (multi-processor, lots of RAM, etc.) computers. If it's okay with you to make low-resolution cartoonish video that sometimes looks a little too unalaised, or do animatics, or your desire to explore a new way to tell a visual story is more important than visual quality (think "The Sims"), and you don't have a higher-end machine -- all respectable criteria -- then use iClone to do figure animation. If you demand more and have the machine to take advantage of it, wait for Poser 7. SS

iClone is actually a lot of fun. I use it for "game" style animations. As a MMO player, I find it quick and easy to use for making animations that look the same as the games I play.

For professional quality animations, I don't think I would use iClone. I use VUE, and video editing tools for that.

Warangel, that's a good characterization: iClone is fun; Poser is not. Poser is more of a means to an end, like Word or Excel. SS

Excuse me? Poser isn't fun?

Oh dear me. I've been having fun for years totally unwarranted then?

(Animation with Poser IS fun too. And easy - Rendering them takes time but the animations themselves are not hard to learn - PLUS you can buy a lot of premade animations)

Thank you so much you guys!  I appreciate it I just threw down 350.00 for iclone and acces.  The reason I went that route was because of the ability to incorp. the voice to synch the facial expressions. Already though I am jealous and as soon as I get Iclone figured out I am def buying poser 7 WARANGEL since you use iclone would you mind helping me some? My email is jeremyinwichita@yahoo.com so that way I am not posting you iclone questions in the poser forum. I must say though that I am looking really forward to getting poser.
thanks ya'll

Iclone looks too much like the SIMS to me.  I'll definitely be sticking to Poser/DAZ Studio.

I'm with PapaBlueMarlin. SIMS is an apt analogy for iClone. But hey, I like cheap beer as well as martinis, but Poser is the much better value, dollar-wise. Yeah, Poser CAN be fun; iClone is fun like a video game or a kid's artist program. Poser is fun the same way Final Cut Pro is fun; it's the creative aspects and the results that keep you coming back. But I stand by my criticism of Poser's animation interface, which is simply barbaric. I'm a video person who migrated to 2D animation then to 3D. I think Creative Labs tossed in animation as an afterthought at some point and is now struggling with a legacy interface. Poser needs a visual interface for it's animation, where you can see the motion paths and the image(s) in the control window. Imagine a control window where you can see your scene, and track the animation paths of control points through 3D space. If not that, then there should be at least an onion-skin feature similar to 2D programs. SS

Hey Skeet 
I like the fac that you go all out in your post an actually include information etc that's cool I appreciate that.  I must say though even though I am playing with a kiddish program sometimes it takes baby steps to work up to the "Big Boys" as a 15 year veteran miniature painter I can only imagine how satisfying it would be to rend out one of those beautiful poser models.  My goals is though not to just follow the norm of other stuff I have seen but actually make something different and to the very best of ability!  While I agree as well with the whole Sims analogy I think alot of it is because people haven't really took the time and effort into some of their iclone creations   I've only been oworking with my models 2 days and already they look much better than the ones you are probably accustomed to seeing. Poser seems alot like playing with paper dolls in 3d so many accessories maybe someday when I grow up I can play with paper dolls too. BTW what program do they use to do things like MOnsters INC.  I remeber seeing Sully (teh big blue guy) for the first time and I was liek Man thats what I wanna do someday.