In case you hadn't stopped by poser place...

http://www.poserplace.phantom3d.net/forums/index.php

Consider this your invitation!! :P  

Ok  to be honest the invitation is and has been pretty much open to all.  But you seem like you might enjoy it.  Feel free to stop by, poke around and see if there is anything you'd like to get involved in!

more to the subject of your post..

You can use displacement for a lot of things to do with detail.  Generally finer detail as far as anatomical stuff.  For instance the little bones and tendons in the hand might work better than the tendons at the back of the knee.  Micro wrinkles might be better served as bump or normal mapped.  I'm not overly sure of the specifics.

A lot of displacement maps are done in zbrush or something similar where they sculpt a higher res mesh and then generate displacement maps to be applied to a lower res one.  That may be just because there are more people with the talent to sculpt that kind of detail than to draw it.  It wouldnt be quite like drawing/painting a picture of someone because the  only really relevant information is height.  So you are looking at greyscale where white is highest and dark is lowest.  Also they would have to be painted onto the UV template so its a distorted image to start with.  Probably quite challenging but not impossible.

If you wanted to work on something like that in a positive environment, with a lot of knowledgeable and generously helpfull people.. poser place is definitly worth a look.  oh... and Antonia could use some of those maps.... just sayin!

 

Quote - Its great to make all of your aquaintance here :-)

As I said in my earlier post, I'm just a newb here and to Poser... hence I'm coming straight in with Poser 9. So, lucky in that respect I guess!

I have a background, originally, in traditional drawing and painting... pencil, paper, oil paint and canvas... but, have in fact been a programmer for the last decade or so and am just trying to rediscover my creative roots a little. I haven't done anything much creative for most of that time... just getting back on the horse.

I didn't have a big legacy of runtime figures. But I have nevertheless invested in what are otherwise quite old stock figures on the face of it... V4 and now M4... and this was predominanty because I can see there seems to be a future in them, because of the V4WM and ongoing M4WM projects... because of the wealth of marketplace stuff available for them too, of course... but I'd say the weight mapping efforts were more a factor for me.

I don't know what proportion of the overal new user demographic I would represent in taking this view... but its probably not insubstantial? Anyway, just saying...

In any case I see the Poser Place efforts as highly commendable and worthy.

When you're talking about creating new texture maps, to go along with V4WM, adding improved surface detail using bump/displacement and/or normal maps, are you thinking greater surface skin details like, for instance - micro wrinkles and creases round fingers... in the interiors of elbow and knee joints etc, more, finer detailed popped veins, inter-pore skin hatching (which is especially evident on human hands close up)... palm creases... some more micro fine body hair... that sort of stuff?

Small tendons in hands, running off from the knuckles perhaps? Tendons on backs of knees, in feet... could displacement be used to suggest that sort of thing or would it involve a morph?

I'm possibly rambling now... sorry!

Would these types of displacement or bump maps be created by processing photographs or would they normally be "painted" (just referencing photos) in something like ZBrush or Photoshop CS5 Extended?

(trying to stay on the thread here - honestly)

;-)