Great you bailed me out again lol! Thanks a lot that works beautifully! Cheers - Baz

The only other low priced app I can think of is Vue, some if not all version load Poser PZ3 files I think but you won't be able to pose in Vue as far as I know. Poser and Daz Studio are your only real choices I think unless you want to spend a LOT of money!

It depends on what you want to do. If you want a Poser type app there's just Poser and Daz Studio, If you want a landscape creation app Vue and Bryce are probably the most popular but there are a number of otheres from free to very expensive. The same goes for modellers and general 3d apps. You really need to decide what you want from the application that will narrow your choice down. - Baz

Bare in mind none of these apps are designed to work with Poser so unless there is a plugin to import Poser models ready textured your going to have to apply maps manually. That process is pretty much the same in all the apps I've used. Cinema does have some plugs available to import Poser models. Interposer is reputedly very good

Well I doubt that FAQ will answer any of those questions because they rely on opinions. Firstly any polygon based modeler that imports and exports .obj files, and that's pretty much all of them, will work well with DAZ studio and Poser. Secondly Poser magnets are very limited for creating morphs, if Poser morphs are your main interest then ZBrush might be a good choice but any poly modeller that can handle high poly counts will do the job. I have to say that Wings isn't a good choice on this point even though it's my favorite modeler. As far as features go you mostly get what you pay for. Maya, XSI and Max are probably the most fully featured 3d apps and are the ones used most by the big studios. They are also the most expensive. Cinema probably comes next and is a little cheaper (unless you buy the production bundle which is a scary price!) Lightwave has fallen a bit behind in the last couple of years but looks to be catching up fast. It's much cheaper than the others and has a strong history in TV and film. Have you seen Serenity? All the modeling and most of the SFX were done in Lightwave. Those are the big names but there are plenty of others and honestly they're all pretty good these days. Choose the one you like the most unless you're looking for employment in which case Maya or XSI for film, Max for games and probably Lightwave for Television would be good choices. - Baz PS Autodesk, the company that owns Max has just bought Alias who make Maya. This has made Maya users a little nervous about the future of their chosen app.

Thanks for the explanation Teyon! Yeah I think it's a matter of preference, you can model anything using any method. I model just about everything using box modelling though if the app allows I might use point to point, poly by poly and splines too when the mood takes me! Cables, ropes and such are a pain in the butt to box model, thank heaven for extrude along splines!

I'm confused (it's easily done though) I thought point to point and poly by poly were the same thing? Surely you create the points in order to create the polys? I know some apps allow you to extrude edges to create polys but doesn't it all boil down to the same thing? Excuse me, I'm a box modeller! :o)

Nice tut Teyon and an interesting idea for a challenge. I've never done any poly by poly modelling so it would be a good learning experience for me!

Fine model and a great link! Thanks Teyon!

I've always liked the idea of a multi app challenge and this sounds cool. The only thing is, modelling a concept car is a fairly specialised challenge, it's not really my sort of thing usually but I might be able to come up with something in 3 months!

I don't see any mention of C4d on their site but I don't see a price either. It looks a lot like Poser face room and that's really cheap and would probably work just as well?

Thanks a lot for all your help! Soulofharmony - Yes, I'll probably be using .jpg most of the time, reviews say the quality of images produced using 12mp normal is excellent but there is a tendancy for the camera to sharpen a little too agressively, boost the contrast too much etc. I'm hoping RAW will get round those tiny problems when results really matter. File sizes aren't a problem, I regularly work on Photoshop illustrations that dwarf anything this camera can churn out lol! Danob _ Thanks a lot, I'll check out T4 cameras! - Baz

Cheers mate!

Thanks folks! Yes it's beginning to look like a card reader is going to be my best bet. Danob I'm in the UK too, any particular models you'd recommend? If you have any special recommendations for cheap reliable suppliers I'd be grateful too, I got the camera from Amazon (at a huge discount! :o) I think there must be a new model coming out) but I'm in the market for XD cards. The camera comes with a 16mb xd card which will hold 1 RAW file! Thanks for your help! - Baz