I just came across DAZ 3D Studio, it is a free 3D figure posing application and animation tool similar to Poser. It is free, but if you want to have unique character models you need to buy them and they do have a extensive library just for that. Now It does come with a character and a few props and poses, but very limited. There is also a library of free models and props, still limited, selling them is where they make their money.
I have not spent that much time with it yet, but it is fairly intuitive. I just opened it and started posing and changing the main character. It is not really used in the animation industry, generally it is used by graphic designers that need quick and easy human models for demonstrations, training manual, safety instructions, story boarding, gesture reference, and a number of uses. It is essentially a digital poseable mannequin. You can export for the models to other 3d applications; I exported a model as an OBJ and was able to bring it into Maya, but I could not figure out how to bring the textures. Also the content menu was a tad confusing, some things worked, other didn’t. I think it was just my ignorance though. There are a bunch of tutorials available on YouTube and from their site.
There are two versions, DAZ 3 and DAZ 3 Advanced. Daz 3 is the core application which is FREE and basically the main differences with the advanced are rendering features and a few modeling features.
The software can be found here: http://www.daz3d.com/i/software/daz_studio3?_m=d
Here is a link to the feature comparison. http://www.daz3d.com/i/software/daz_studio3/features?_m=d
