Let me first say I am amazed at the quality of the imagery produced and shown at renderosity.com. It's inspirational and awesome!

However I don't yet own Poser or any of the other software.
What software should I consider purchasing, should I wish to produce something like the types of scenes shown here.

I've been told by someone that some of the effects used in the sceneries can be produced by freeware.

As someone totally new to all this, what and where would be the sorts of resources I would need.

TRhanks in eager anticipation.