I've been trying to find either a prop or a tutorial on how to create slash marks and such, but I can't seem to find one. Does anyone know where I might be able to find something like that?

You could use a bump map with slash marks to make them look raised like real slashes. Make the bump map out of your slashed texture.

Okay heres an Idea, Go into tutorials and look for how to make Real blood drip tutorial then, expand that tutorial by drawing in dark slashes that the blood will drip out of its pretty easy I use psp7 , alot of people here use Ps . and Gimp. But its all about the right texture creating if your doing this for a char, or just learning the right trick for postworking a rendered Image. Hope this Helps

Attached Link: http://www.webdesignstudien.de/webdesignstudienv3/creatingdarkart.html

Thanks, that'll help a lot. I'm a newbie at this, and I think I get the idea of those tutorials, but I'm not quite sure what you mean by "Make the bump map out of your slashed texture". The bump map is what the texture is applied to on a character right? So, you mean draw a slash on the texture, and then do something to the bump map? Not quite sure how to do that...any tips?

The 'Texture' is the full color JPG (or TIFF, BMP, etc) where the 'Bump Map' will be your grey scale to add depth to the render. Using Poser4 you will let Poser convert it to a BUM in the Material Window but in Poser5 you just use the grey scale. Many people make the mistake of just converting a texture to grey scale and using it as is, often this is not really what you want to do. Such as with scars, scabs, and wounds you would want CUTS and GASHES to be darker then the flesh, thus they get recesed (lower or 'cut in') where as such things as scars and scabs should be raised therefore you want then slightly lighter (whiter) then the flesh so. You see in a Bump Map the darker areas are lower and the lighter areas are higher. Take a black and white image, about 400x400 will do, and paint white stripes on black...or black stripes on while, whatever tickles your fancey. Now apply this to a non-textured Poser Ball, or use the Box I don't care just do it! Now make sure you apply it to the BUM window if using Poser4 or the Bump node if using Poser 5. Now render it and see the difference. This will give you a good idea of what you are doing to your texture when you apply a Bump Map.

Ah, I see. Ok, I'll do that. Thanks.

I meant to use your original texture as a bump map, so that the raised part of the slashes would be in the same place as the actual slashes. Obviously you would have to change the texture to be a bump map, I would try making it a negative image in a drawing program and using that as the bump map.

Ok, so turn the standard texture into a negative, then draw on slash marks with white or light gray?

No I meant to draw slashes on your texture, then use the same texture as a negative so the slash marks are still there. Use that copy as a bump map. You could add some roughness to the slashes on the bumpmap version, too. You would have to experiment with the strength of the bumpmap 100% would be too much.

On the left is the color texture, on the upper right is a simple desaturated copy (EDIT->Image->Desaturate), but as you can see the scar is actually darker then the flesh, therefore it will be recessed instead of a bump on the flesh. On the lower right I INVERTED the desaturated copy and then adjusted the lightness (curves is also good for this).

As for 'making' the scare; I used the simple way and used one of RDNA's scar add ons. Another simple way would be to select your scar area with the free-hand selection tool (the coat hanger) and then apply a button filter, then start tweeking the settings to blend it into the flesh. Or use a more sophisticated aproach such as the tutorial posted above. Also the Burn/Dodge tools are good....but I am better at tweeking textures then I am at making them.

Oh, for slashes instead of scars use a carve filter instead of a button filter, and then adjust the color to make it reder then the flesh and leave the 'slash' darker then the flesh so it is recessed down into the flesh.

Message edited on: 10/16/2004 12:17

xantor; instead of Inverting the texture you can Desaturate it and then you will not need to crank the strength so high. Sometimes, depending on what/how I want, you can also select just certain parts of the colored map and invert just that, then desaturate and invert the whole texture. This way things like around the eyes, nipples, and such don't end up black when you want them white.

Ah, ok. That clears things up a bit. Sorry about the newbie questions, but hey, everyone's got to learn somehow, right?