Anasta, the problem you describe, artifacts due to even a tiny amount of bump, is because most people have misunderstood bump maps from the beginning. They are almost all gray. They should be mostly black.

See gray means 1/2. White means 1. Black means 0. This is true of bump or displacement. The number you type into the bump channel where you connect the map is multiplied with the map. So if you type in .1 inch, and the map is almost all gray, you're actually "raising" the entire surface by .1 * .5 = 1/20th of an inch. Now if you have a crease, like eyelid, lip corner, nostril, where the width of the crease is LESS than that 1/20th of an inch, then the surface "crosses" over itself and you get BLACK.

Curiously I have had to explain this 5 times in the last week. Usually its only once a week.

The solution when working with these mid-gray bump maps, is to use a math node and subtract .5 from it before plugging into your bump channel.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)