I am a long-time Poser user, currently running ver. 7. Saying that, I have owned D/S 1, 2, 3 and now 4. I've never been able to get past the idea that there are problems with both programs. Poser is in desperate need of major overhaul to clean up crud dating back to its origin. DAZ, in its huge desire to be different, has simply created a whole new set of errors. But D/S 4 takes the cake: This total "nerfing" of the software with it's emphasis on drag-on-drop is cute but simply means that newcomers to human figure 3D will not the basics of the art/technology. But DAZ apparently wants a world that wouldn't put anything into it's software put DAZ and DAZ 3rd-party products. It is my opinion that new users will take the freebie, buy some add-ons, and burn out on the buy, buy, buy thing, on one hand, and on the limitations to their resources (if they have to constantly buy and cannot learn how to import other models and mats), on the other. Furthermore, the "free" D/S is turning out to be a scam to sell more expensive plug-ins. And, finally, I used to think the Poser references were lame but DAZ has made a fine art of providing the thinnest resources available. (The Bryce 7 Handbook is still missing.) Of course, this is in keeping with the industry: I spent okver $1800 for CS4 and there are not longer organized references for Photoshop - everything is a hit or miss document search. I must be getting old, as a consumer I'm pretty fed up with all these guys.

How to create your own Character in poser?  To complely create you own character in poser or daz, I don't believe that is possible.  What you can do is take one of the character's that come with the programs like victoria 4 and alter it with magnets, morphs, etc as well as the dials that is built into the character to virtually get any effect you want.  You will have to use a program like blender to create the obj, then use poser to rig it.  As to accessing the skin, you go into runtime, libraries, textures, daz people and you will find the texture for Victoria or any other daz character.   Using a graphic sofware like corel or gimp and alter it to what you want.  Remember you are working with someone elses copywrited artwork, so just use it to abtain a map and use your own textures to make it yours.  If you want to create the skin for scratch, you will have to use a program like uvmaper and make a template.  The same with clothing. 

To create your own figure for Poser or daz Studio (instead of a character based on base figure) you will need a 3d modelling program that can export to .obj format. Poser and DS are for posing, rendering and animating. They have tools for creating characters based on prebuilt figures but not the tools to build a 3d model from scratch.

To build from scratch you need lightwave, max or their commerical competitors or to use open source modellers like blender or wings3d (which are free).

I've learned a lot since my first post.  The main difference between Daz Studio and Poser is that DS is a stage to modify, dress, and pose the figures.  Poser is a scene and creation software.  There is a software bridge between the two programs that allow you to move things between the two programs.  You create in poser then move to DS for morphs, clothes and posing (you can also do scenes) and the transfer them back to Poser for final render.

You also can do it all in DS but you have to start with their base figures.  Other people make morphs or characters that can be used in DS to create complete renders.

DS is compatible with most of the things on sites like ShareCG.  It's easiest to open the runtime zip and copy each part into the DS runtime (geometries, props whatever)  Some file types you can't use like pmd for poser, but for the most part they are pretty compatible.

There is now a DazStudio 4, that has many more features and can do things it never could before.  Right now it is free, but will cost money in the near future.  It's worth getting just to have it and/or play around to experiment.

The pro verson of poser is great for rigging and as of yet have not rigged a character in daz.  As jammixx says Daz 4 is free for now.  They are coming out with an advanced version which I believe will also be both 64 and 32 bit, and stronger then the free verson.  I do believe by the emails that a free verson will remain free.  Don't hold me to that though. 

A new verson of Poser is also coming out, or I should say two version.  Version 9 and verson 2012.  From what I am understanding by reading forums and what not, there is a rift between Daz and Poser and they won't be as compatable as they have been in the past.  Poser pro will have simular rigging as genisis but I not sure if genisis figures will work in the new poser and likewise.  A sad day for some of us as we will be forced to choose which one has what we want most.  Like the new mimic live.  It won't work with poser figures and is not a stand alone product so can't be used with poser at all.  I'm not sure if you save anything in daz 4 to poser format.  I have been out of commission and in the hospital so have not been able to try saving anything in it to poser format.  When I do I will let you know.

Oh by the way if anyone is interested Smith Micro is taking advanced orders on Poser 9 and 2012 at a good discount for ligitiment users, as well as good upgrade prices.  I am not sure if I would be allowed to post prices or link as I am not a promoter for them, but simply want to pass on what I have learned. 

hey there, i've used DS since '07 and learned a load of stuff about it i use almost everything i have seen that i like on the pages of sharecg in DS since DS1.7 all the way up to DS4.0.3 (latest version) standard.

about the only thing that can not be used in DS that is in poser is the mc files and poser dynamic material. also you can't use ds dynamic in poser.  pmd morphs can be used in ds up to ds3.1 with a script/plugin found in the daz freepository.i've found out that even though poser can use ext runtimes poser 7 cannot or will not recognize ext runtimes.

but learning ds was pretty much the best thing i did and all the textures i've posted and poses too were created in ds3 using scripts that assist in mat pose creation and the PFE (poser format exporter).