Just say no, kids. It's very intuitive, I know, and gives you nice
results for minimum effort, while Lifeforms has always demanded a
greater investment of time, but there really isn't any comparison
between them for anything approaching serious work.
My experience was of intense inital satisfaction with Poser - those
inverse kinematics, the different (non-) bodies available, the friendly
drag and rotate interface - swiftly giving way to frustration as I tried
to extract results from it; The precise reverse of my experience with
Lifeforms.
I was recently unwise enough to try and made a four minute (single
figure) piece in poser for a performance/installation thing, and by the
time I was making minute three, the cut and paste time was at about
45minutes (^C, go away, get a coffee, paint a wall, return, ^V, rig some
lights, eat some noodles, drum fingers, pace the floor, you get the
idea) on a 150mHz mac. The render time came out just under two days even
for the kind of quality that needed serious post-production gaussian
blurring.
Two figures slows it down so far that no activity occurs detectable to
the naked eye, and the thought of doing ensemble work is frankly
hilarious.
Now, I suppose that with a particularly muscular processor, long
deadlines and infinite patience, you might decide that you can bear to
work with Poser, but for dance-type work, it still isn't going to be a
barrel of laughs. Poser understands the concepts of floor and space even
less capably than Lifeforms (I'm being unfair. Lifeforms understands
these things. Just not like I do), so unless you're happy rooted to the
spot, you need Zen or an aquired love for that walking-on-the-spot
effect.
Verdict: Poser=toy LifeForms=tool
Now that Fractal (makers of Poser) have merged with Specular (the
sublime Infini-D) and Metatools, maybe it'll get more functional, but
until then, I won't be touching it again with a very long bargepole.
(I seem grouchy today - apols.)
guy