I'm new to Poser (less than a month) but I'm having a blast playing with it. I recently purchased a product that stated in the readme file... Bump maps are in the character folders saved with bump.jpg at the end. These need to be converted into bump maps prior to using the mat files. Can anyone tell me how to convert the files? I already tried emailing the creator for the product, but my email was returned...

Assuming you have Poser Artist (a.k.a., Poser 4), select the ground plane, then open the material panel (CTRL-U) and load each JPEG as a bump map. Poser will convert them to BUM format and save them to the same folders as the originals. If you have Pro Pack or P5, Poser won't convert the files. It can use the JPEGs as-is. You might have to edit your character files so Poser will reference the existing JPEGs instead of BUMs.

First, if you are using P4Pro Pack or P5, you don't need to convert. P4 you do. Open poser. 1. Top of window, Render > Materials. 2. Where it says BumpMap, click on Load. 3. Find the Bump jpg. you want to convert and open. 4. A new pop-up window will ask if you want to convert. Click Yes. That's it.

OK, so I'm a slow typer. LD beat me to it.

Make sure however that you only convert the .jpg files which are MEANT to be bump-maps (usually have a "B" or the word "Bump" in the filename). Because .BUM files (Poser4/Artist) are rather large so you don't want any .BUMs that you don't NEED :) Cheers, Cliff

Thank you all for your help! Get used to seeing me around, I'm sure I'll have more questions...and when I get a little more proficient, maybe I can return the favor, and answer questions for other new Poser artists....(BTW I'm using Poser 5) csaatrainer

You will be like usssss :)

you say that like it's a bad thing!

Its hard feeding the Poser monkey you will see.:-)

Since you're using P5 you won't need to convert anything. As a matter of fact you CAN'T convert jpg's into .bum's with P5 :o) Oh and yes. You will be assimilated GG

So, that's a "Cyberman" AND a "Borg" conversion in the works. Any advance on a Borg?

Okay.......now who can recommend a good/simple way of converting .BUM files back to an editable format? Sometimes already converted .BUM files are included with a product rather than .JPGs. Personally, I use the FREE Graphic Converter program. Its the only app I know that can read .BUMs. Anyone else have a solution? If so, what is it?

Bum's are really just bmp's. you can rename them to bmp and open them. They look odd and green though. But they can be opened with just about any graphics program after renaming.