I just finished watching a lecture from ted.com where Paul Debevec describes how his company animated a photo real digital face.  It's mind blowing:

Animating a Photo Real Digital Face

Now, while this is beyond anything that a normal Poser user can produce it does touch on things like diffuse and specular maps and something that I found extremely interesting, animated displacement maps.  It's funny 'cause I´ve been thinking about using displacement maps on V4's face to add detail and to make expressions more believable.  But animated displacement maps?  Do you think that could ever be a possibility with Poser?  Maps that react to posing?  Am I crazy to even thinking about it?

Hi thats a pretty old link
been circulating here & elsewhere for a while
But No I dont think this will ever be possible or even needed in poser.

 Hmm, while I can believe it won't be possible I don't agree on the not needed part.  I think facial expression is generally over looked in the great hunt for photo realism and I think that Poser really needs something new in that department.  Even though animated displacement maps are an impossibility, something is needed to pull more muscles in our figures faces.

Quote -  Hmm, while I can believe it won't be possible I don't agree on the not needed part.  I think facial expression is generally over looked in the great hunt for photo realism and I think that Poser really needs something new in that department.  Even though animated displacement maps are an impossibility, something is needed to pull more muscles in our figures faces.

Actually, animating displacement is possible... at least to some degree...
Almost every parameter in Poser's material room can be animated...
Combine that with "dependent parameters" and you may be able to animate displacement
based on the value of a dial/morph...

Martin

Quote -  Now, while this is beyond anything that a normal Poser user can produce it does touch on things like diffuse and specular maps...

Please define what a normal Poser user is. If you're into 3D, even with Poser, you have a basic grasp of the fundamentals. Nobody says you need to model like Sze Jones, or animate like Chris Taylor, but you can certainly create something decent for today's standards, and you can certainly expand your knowledge of the subject at any time.

On the matter now, I think you need a normal map rather than a displacement one. There is this basic yet significant difference between these two: Displacement maps render "true" geometry where it doesn't exist, which is quite a burden for any renderer that supports this sort of map. They can also be very tricky at times, which is why they're mostly used for rougher details, but not for human skin, and especially not for facial characteristics/marks. Normal maps on the other hand are basically bump maps, but offer a much better illusion by creating fake shadows and generally responding to light more correctly.

I think that pretty much every map can be animated, just by changing its offset value during time, or by gradually replacing it with a different map. I don't know if the latter is possible in Poser, as I've not given much attention to its material settings, mainly because I prefer to export the models and experiment in Max and Vue for the time being. But it's certainly worth checking.

 What I meant by "a normal Poser user" I meant pretty much all of us who use Poser.  I should have said that this is beyond Poser's capabilities.

I hear a about normal maps being superior to displacement maps and there has been some discussion about this here at the forum although I think Poser doesn't fully utilize normal maps like maybe more high end apps might.  I disagree about displacement maps not being used for skin. I mean, aren't displacement maps used to a great extent in Zbrush and other programs for skin pores and facial details?  Or are you talking about Poser's ability to use displacement maps?

 Yes and no, you've got it a bit confused. Normal maps and displacement maps are entirely different things, therefore you can't really say that one is superior to the other.
ZBrush doesn't use any sort of map, other than the psd's or jpeg's that are its brush files. What it does, is to give you the option to export your sculpt in the form of either a displacement or a normal map. And as I mentioned, normal maps are a more sophisticated version of bump maps, while displacement maps offer the ability to render real volume using b&w images.
Poser supports both as far as I've seen. I'm not very sure about Pro, but I've seen that 8 does have options regarding normal maps.

I'm sure it could be done now using python to load  the proper displacement map into each frame.  The tricky part is generating all of those maps...

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=2382462&ebot_calc_page#message_2382462

Saying that, I wonder what the minimum number of displacement maps would be acceptable. For example, frowning for forehead wrinkles, a smiling map for cheek/nose/eye creases/wrinkles etc. They could maybe be linked to the appropriate morphs using dependent parameters possibly, if DPs can be used to animate materials.
Hmmm, intriguing thought. And it certainly wouldn't real-time! :) Could be worth it for animations though.

One of my first plays with animating displacement here, using a movie as displacement map

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=VJflickeringlight#p/u/85/-Lby7pMbNhg

Its not pretty, and is a subject I've returned to a couple of times, but with limited success

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1391617&user_id=11357&np&np

is a still from another animated displacement, in this case the map was a bitmap and I animated the scale of displacement. this method would probably be more suitable for your suggestion of animating expressions as a bitmap can have a much higher res than most movies and subtle gradations of the displacement amount I can see working quite well for facial creases etc.

as for loading lots of maps, might it be possible to use animated blender nodes to "edit" the appearance of different parts of the map instead?

Quote - One of my first plays with animating displacement here, using a movie as displacement map

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=VJflickeringlight#p/u/85/-Lby7pMbNhg

Its not pretty, and is a subject I've returned to a couple of times, but with limited success

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1391617&user_id=11357&np&np

is a still from another animated displacement, in this case the map was a bitmap and I animated the scale of displacement. this method would probably be more suitable for your suggestion of animating expressions as a bitmap can have a much higher res than most movies and subtle gradations of the displacement amount I can see working quite well for facial creases etc.

as for loading lots of maps, might it be possible to use animated blender nodes to "edit" the appearance of different parts of the map instead?

Did you ever try turning down the displacement values? That would be a nifty Monster transformation clip but if you tried lower displacement values you might get something human from that method.

 Also, doesn't 16bit support change something?  Is it possible to get smoother displacement with 16bit maps?

Quote - Did you ever try turning down the displacement values? That would be a nifty Monster transformation clip but if you tried lower displacement values you might get something human from that method.

Haha, yes, I was just into playing with massive displacements at the time, as to your suggestion, yes lower values to still give quite a monstrous effect ( must get round to trying it on an octopus for a really gross creature) and could just be used as a transition if the last frame of the movie is exported as a still and used to replace the movie. Seams can be a bit of a problem though.The major issue is resolution if you are trying to make a moving texture to add fine details to a face. That's why I was thinking more in terms of masking different areas of a bitmap with the blender nodes and animating visibility with the blend parameters as well as keyframing the displacement values to make creases and muscle bulges move as they do in the clip Vestmann referred to.

@Vestmann, sorry I have'nt a clue about the 16 bit stuff