is there a way to stack one texture on top of another using nodes? Im trying to make a speedo style swim suit without geometry, i have the texture down but when i put it on the figure using color math/multiply it only puts a semi-transparent texture on top of the skin texture. I want it to be opaque. ideally id like to use a greyscale texture map and add a color node to change the color.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/tut.ez?Form.ViewPages=835

Not sure if this is what you are looking for but have a look at this link. John

thats kinda neat...i might have to try that, but its not what i am looking for. thanks for trying though.

You just need a blender node, driven by a black and white map that has white where you want swim suit and black where you want skin. Your skin texture goes into one colour input and you set the other one to the colour you want the swim suit to be.

errr?

Put the black/white map in the blending channel and set the blending channel's value to 1.

yes, thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you

Neat trick! Thanks!

I see you still have a connection between the base body-texture and the Specular Color. That may be redundant when the Specular Color is black. I think you may also get better results by replacing it with the Blender output. Also, your Image Map 2 could be replaced by the Image Map 3, with adjustments to the Bump value. Set it as a negative value, and a bit less magnitude. Instead of 0.100 try -0.05 A seperate map will let you make hems, seams, and waistbands, so it's a trade-off. Also, see if Gradient Bump or Displacement do a better job.

Ok, I've got a Warring 12 speed blender and the only time it affects Poser is when I turn it on while the computer is on and it creates static and EMF problems...what the heck is a "blender" for Poser, please, and how does it work? I mean, really, where would you put the crushed ice and the margrita mix?

Let's see, I've only just looked into this thread, but I was wondering if this could be used for tan lines? Can the blending map be "partially transparent" to lighten (or darken) specific areas? mike

trav...like this? attached a skin to both inputs and lowered the texture strength of one of them (in this case the lower one to .85)

F'revvinsake, put this on the Tutes page!!! It's a gem! Multitudinous thanks!

Here i need help with the bump. AntoniaTiger's suggestion of setting the bump to -.05 looks great (not shown here) but what do i do in a circumstance like this where i have the skin used as a bump? I tried adding in my texture (image_map_5) and setting the "texture strength" to 5 in order to compinsate for the low setting needed for the skin's bump, but is there a way to compinsate for the positive number in stead of the negative suggested by AntoniaTiger?

I'm going to have to dig out some of my stuff, but I wasn't envisaging anything quite so complicated. Why do you want to feed the skin texture into the Bump input? Yes, there is a way to do invert the basic map. Use a math node, and multiply by -1. Then the black parts of the map are translated to white, and vice versa. Use a smaller absolute value to reduce the range of the result, and another math node can shift the value. All the math nodes are listed in Chapter 43 of the manual. I'm now trying to find out if black=0 or black=1, it doesn't seem to get mentioned. I think if you want to figure out what is happening, that last screen-grab i9s getting too complicated.

Tyger Purr, Exactly what I was talking about! Thanks! mike

Black =0, white = 1. To invert a map, use a math node to subtract it from 1 (don't multiply by -1 as that will just make the whole map less than zero). So: 1 - map = inverse of map. I'm not sure what you mean about compensating for positive numbers. The way I see it, all you really need to do here is control how strong the bump is on the skin and on the swimmers. To do that, set the texture strength back to 1, then adjust the bump amount until either the swimmers or the skink look right but the other one is too strong. Then go to bender 4 and and lower the brightness of the input colour for the part that has bump that's too strong. For example, if you get it so that the skin looks right but the swimmers look like the bump is about twice as strong as it should be, then you would set the colour of input 2 to be 50% grey. That effectively multiplies image 5 by one half.

I'd like to feed the skin texture into the bump input because i feel it makes it look better. this particular texture did not come with a indipendent image for bump but the idea would be the same. most of the complication comes from spearating the skin from the clothing. the clothing connects to difuse color, and the skin goes thru alternate difuse and i also removed the clothing from the specular and alt specular. when i tried using the math node at -1 it looked like it turned the image solid black so im not sure it is doing what i want.

Two methods of map inversion (colour inverse and greyscale inverse).

I'm not sure what you mean about compensating for positive numbers. negative numbers in the bump setting give the illusion of raised surfaces where it is darker while positive numbers give the illusion of depressions. your earlier suggestion of using -.05 gave the illusion that the clothing was on top of the skin but now that i added the skin as a bump using a value of .01 (a positive number) the clothing does not give the appearance of being on top of the skin.

I think you're confusing me with AntoniaTiger, which is going to be confusing since we're giving you slightly different advice. If you want the swimmers to have higher bump than the skin then you need the bump map that comes out of your blender to be brighter in the swimmers area than in the skin area. If you expand the preview on that blender 4, you'll see that isn't happening. Here's one way to make it happen. The math node brightens the whole bump map which is then fed to input 2 on the blender. Input One gets the unadjusted bump map but the input colour is set to 50% grey to bring down the bump strength by half.

I am going to have to check up on the fine details of bump maps and displacement maps. They work in different ways, I know, and I've been using displacement maps recently to get depressions in an object.

I think you can use negative values on bump too, but when I'm processing negative values through colour inputs like the ones in the blender node, it's not always clear to me what's happening, so I try to avoid doing it.

Message edited on: 11/26/2004 19:03

Just bookmarking this.

I have done this before, but I got a new idea from reading this thread. Thanks!

Just a couple of (minor) points... 1. You rarely have to use a "math multiply/divide" node, 'cos you can usually do that via the value dial of the parameter you're plugging in to (eg: value = 0.1 is the same as going through a math divide by 10). (there are, however times when you have to use math "divide/multiply).. 2. You can sometimes get a better displacement/bump when adding clothing via the nodes by doing a slight blur to the mask. That way, it adds a thickness to the cloth without an abrupt change. 3. With a bit of thought and work, you can combine up to (at least) 3 different "masks" in a single image. (see next post). Saves memory.... ...

... Here there are 3 overlapped disks. The disks are are pure Red, Green, Blue, and created using "additive" mode (in PSP 9, but most 2D software will allow you to do this). (Note - they MUST be on a black background!) By using the "Math->Component" node, it's possible to extract JUST the individual bits.. So you can combine 3 masks in a single image:-)) (Feel free to get as creative as you want.....) Cheers, Diolma

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=2227023

With a little bit of colour math you can get more than 3 masks out of a coloured image.

LOL @ nruddock:-)) Yup I agree (I think that thread of yours was where I first got the gist of the idea). I was just trying to show the basics... (I'll get round to the more intricated stuff later, probably after I complete my 1st NVIATWAS with all props created by myself, except for the NV). Check back in 2016.... Cheers, Diolma