I created a ribbing texture in Photoshop for the P4 Turtelneck sweater.  I saved as a bump map added som additional textures etc.  But when I render:

1. The shadows created now on the turtleneck seem harsh and don't blend - I know it's the image map becuase when i remove it the render looks better
2. The ribbing looks like I want it
3. I've tried making the area of the bump where there is no ribbing black, gray, and white solids in an effort not to affect that area of the turtleneck during render but no matter what it does!

First, any ideas on what I can do to make this bump work better? resolution?  Second, the P4 turtlleneck sweater is the only one I've found so far for a Poser figure.  It may be that the mesh on this is just not that great.  Any suggestions for another resource for a turtleneck sweater? I'll need to know the map so I can adjust the colors.

Thanks everyone for all of your help. 

Could you post a pic of how it's turning out? It may be easier to help that way.

I'm thinking you may need to use soft shadows or lighter shadows, or use ambient occlusion on the material...

depending on software/renderer, there are some settings to make it look better. post screen shot of render settings and material room.

Attached Link: Picture of texture render on Sweater with ribbing

Attached Link: Here's one without the bump and the material (purple) 's shadows look better...

Attached Link: http://www.jupiter2consoles.com/Images/render.jpg

change "texture filtering" to none. for bump/displacement to show, decrease shading rate to at least 0.2 (default), but lower values are much better IMVHO. turn on raytracing, 2 bounces, pixel samples to 8, et al. try plugging it into displacement channel instead, although in the bump materials I'm not really seeing an useable displacement map.

Your bump amount is way way too high. Where was that posting I did on this before.

Whatever your Poser display units are set to, you have the bump at 1. That means simulate bump of 1 INCH or 1 FOOT or 1 METER, but regardless it is ridiculous.

Bump should never be more than .1 inch - usually a bump is .05 inches or .02 inches. Think about the real life object - your cloth ribbs are how high?

THanks. Setting the bump at .02 looks good even if the bump image is at 100%.  I am going to use this to creae image animations so render time is a huge consideraton too. Thanks for you help as I will continue to mess with this.

I'm not sure how to use ambient occlusion on the material but will look into that....

"so render time is a huge consideraton too."

If you're doing an animation, Ambient Occlusion (at values that look good enough) will seriously increase your render times. Don't bother with it yet, nor any other of the "advanced" stuff. Get your anim working first, then think about improving it where necessary.

Animation doesn't (usually) need anywhere near as much "realism" in rendering terms as is needed for stills. The eye gets caught up in the motion and fills in the details for itself.

Hope that helps,

Cheers
Diolma

THanks! Yes it does - just trying to find the right balance.....between the two....ph