Hi marcus,

There are no dumb questions, at least not in CG. There are, occasionally, dumb answers :)

I believe you're talking about the UBSS script I posted at RDNA? That is not a normal Python script. It is a matmatic script. Matmatic is a Python module I wrote and distribute for free. Its purpose is to extend the Python language and library to tailor it to the purpose of making Poser materials and material collections. You cannot simply rename it and run it in Poser alone. You must first install matmatic, and run the matmatic compile.py script. It is that script which interprets my shader scripts.

The real purpose of matmatic is not to enable the creation of shaders. Poser already does that. Its purpose is to permit the rapid construction of mathematically rich shaders, intermediate to advanced stuff. Learning the basics is much better directly in the material room.

If you're just starting out, it really isn't necessary or even wise to go straight to scripted materials. Much better is to work directly in the material room, learning to create and connect nodes, and learning to adjust the parameters interactively. The beauty of the material room interface is you get to see a preview of each node in real time. So as you make changes, you get immediate feedback, piece by piece, of what you've ordered Poser to do.

Instead of working with the script, I suggest you work through the screen shots of the basic 3-node shader. After you succeed in that, then we can get you up and running on matmatic, and you can then use the special effects for moles, freckles, that require a bit more than a few basic nodes.

After that, will be a good time to learn to use matmatic, if only to be able to use some of my more advanced shaders. A lot of people never learn to write matmatic scripts and that's fine. There is plenty of value in being able to use the complex shaders I write and distribute as matmatic scripts. The reason I do that is that there is are a lot of parameters that get pretty tricky to manage yourself. If you can learn to fill in a few filenames and edit a few key numbers and colors, then the scripts will generate the nodes for you, using the subject matter expertise I've embedded in them to derive all the additional numbers and colors necessary to complete a shader.

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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)