...OK been a while (pulls out a Trauma patch & slaps it on the thread)
A lot has changed. in the last few years:
Daz Studio is now in Ver4 and includes the new Genesis figure. Genesis is an androgynous human form that has a wider range of morphing capability as well as weight mapping which improves joint bending and muscle flexing. There is a set of basic morphs as well as character injections specifically created for Genesis.
Older generation models will work in ver4 but cannot be used in conjunction with Genesis without one of "legacy" figure plugins.
Studio4Pro (which currently is being offered for free but nit for much longer) includes several useful tools like Autofit (which hlept with fitting clothing content for older figures to Genesis) and the Content Creator Tools. It also has 64 bit support.
Smith Micro has released Poser 9 and Pro 2012 (the latter which also supports weight mapping and 64 bit processing).
Carrara is now up to Version8 with the Pro version incorporating vertex modelling, multi pass rendering, and 64 bit support.
Vue is now at version 10
Bryce has seen a revision however is still a 32 bit application only.
Blender has gone through a major revision which included a more navigable UI and addition of the Cycles render engine.
Currently my tools set includes:
Daz Studio 2, 3Advanced, 4Basic, and 4Pro
Poser 8, Poser 9, Poser Pro 2010 and Poser Pro 2012.
Bryce7
Blender 2.61
Carrara8 Pro
Paint Shop ProX4
Gimp
Painter Essentials
Project Dogwaffle.
OK time for a little art:
Here's the newest version of The Kid (Redjack, you may recognise the set):
Kyoto Kid
Leela on a Milk Run:
Leela Milka
Dolly Sweet and her Flamethrower of Truth:
Dolly
And Leela again, from her days in Zagreb:
Child of war