3d posing and modeling recs?

Here's the deal: I want to do some comic book type work using screencaps (because I have a huge story and not a lot of time and I could do it easily if I had about 5 models that I could pose and some scenery and then cut and edit (and caption) and stick that on a page.

Any recommendations on a software for this? I'd like some pre-loaded models (and medieval type clothing) but I'd also like to morph the models' faces and change at least one of them into a dwarf (acondoplastic, with very short legs and arms).

Having pre-loaded horses and lions or wolves would also be nice.

Scenery needs are simple -- rocky area, some forestry (I could probably get away with just two of them) and a whole lotta desert. Castle-thing would also be nice but I can grab screenshots of that elsewhere.

Any ideas?

I'm handy with Photoshop, by the way.

This might be overkill, but the only thing in this line I've played around with is MilkShape. Its a very cheap (about $30) 3d modeling tool. At the high end of the spectrum is 3D Studio Max. I hang around Garage Games every now and then and pretend to be a game programmer.

I say it's overkill because the models are made so they can be viewed from any direction, but this might be a plus for you. Instead of trying to redraw them you can just pose them the way you want them to look and get a screen shot. You can find a lot of pre-made models. Some free, some very expensive. I'm sure someone has some medieval models premade.

I'm not going to say that learning this would be very easy. I'm not that good at it. I'm just messing with manipulating models in a 3d enviroment. I don't do much towards making the models. Thats another sklll I don't have. If you go this route you'd need a 3d application to render you models in. Again you can find some free stuff to do that. If I remember correctly the Torque game engine (Free at garage games) has a demo level that's out doors with some medieval looking buildings.

I don't know if this would save you any time, but that's all I've got.

You might also want to check out Blender. It's a 3D modeling environment, completely free, but with a pretty steep learning curve. You're saying you want to do comic book style stuff--I'm sure other packages have it as well, but Blender does have the capabilities for rendering with cell-shading to give it a comic book/cartoony feel.

Check out Daz Studio. www.daz3d.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow"> www.daz3d.com...

The program is free and plenty of content is available, much of it free. You can get up and running very quickly.