do you know why people dislike poser? because theyre threatened by it... all of a sudden all of these 'great artists' who work in traditional mediums are having some of their limelight stolen by people who work in 3D, and mainly poser. they think all poser art is somehow 'easier' and requires much less talent than 'real' artwork. its a LOT harder posing a poser figure, and lighting a poser scene, than it is a photograph. thats speaking nothing of actually texturing the characters and environment yourself - that brings the workload to more than that of an average painting. like i said, its just fear... fear that the art world is opening up to so many new people with programs like poser. and poser does do that - it bridges the gap, and allows people who arent that great at some aspects of painting to create solid work. i have friends who were creative geniuses - they had such wicked imaginations, but try as they might they just couldnt get their anatomy right, or their perspective, lighting, whatever. a program also allows people to focus on their strengths without getting bogged down with their weaknesses, bogged down so much that they give up on art. honestly, when i paint an oil painting (as do most people), i usually go by either a live model or a photo reference - wether its one taken for the image, or an old photograph or a magazine clipping. few people actually paint images directly from their imaginations.... so why does painting with a poser figure as a reference instead of a photo automatically exclude you from the world of 'real artists'? not everyone can afford or have access to a suitable live model and photographic equipment, studio, or the proper environment to a scene. i think poser is great. i also think that, given the opportunity, a true unbiased artist would jump at a chance to use any type of medium to their advantage. you think that leonardo davinci would have hesitated to fire up his PC and render some images with vicky and mike if he had the chance? the man was a revolutionary artist - experimenting with everything from artistic mediums to the physics of flight and military engineering. im sure he would use every tool available to him, even if it were only to help visualize a canvas. ...and this is where the other end of the spectrum - the 'poser purists', piss me off. wtf? i constantly have people flaming my poser images that ive post-edited or painted over in photoshop, saying that theyre somehow 'cheating' - that its not a poser render and doesnt belong in a poser gallery. that i have 'no right' to be posting them there, because ive used other programs in addition to poser. lol. dont get me wrong, in the rare instance that i do get a poser render that has no blemishes or flaws, i wont hesitate to post it as is. but most of the time, when i see joint errors, jaggy shadows, clipping errors or just a general 'need' for highlighting and deepening of shadow, ill pop the image into photoshop and fix it up to my liking. id have to be insane to say 'im not going to fix that glaring joint problem because that would disqualify me from the exclusive world of TRUE poser artists'. its a pretty fucked up world out there. on the one hand you have the poser bashers, bitching about poser being for 'n00bs'. on the other, you have the poser purists bitching that using other programs to touch up poser renders 'disqualifies' you. people will always bitch about something, you can never please anyone, so dont even bother trying. just do your own thing and ignore all the angst-ridden little prepubescent punks who will try all they can to push your buttons... if you ignore them theyll go back under their little bridges. /end rant cheerio, -gabriel