I can wrap my mind around the concept of adding a psd layer of makeup to the facial skin of a figure (say V4), but I cannot for the life of me fathom the workflow. Trust me: I'm the kind of figure-it-out-for-myself kind of person (this is my first real question here; working with Poser over a year now - now P9, Mac OS X 10.7.4, if that matters for this inquirey), but I'm positively perplexed. I do have Photoshop as well.

What brought this all on is that I actually just bought a product here called SoCoolMakeup, after neglecting to read that it is a psd layer project and not a shader. So instead of returning it (or just not ever using it), I'm determined to master the process of skin customization, as that will really help me out in the long run anyway.

I should add that I really have tried to figure it out on my own: importing the head skin into Photoshop, creating the layer for the makeup...then confusion. Why can I not choose the options listed in the content advertisement?. I know they exist, because they are listed in the PS heirarchy if I just import them as a background, but not as a layer with the V4 head skin as the background. Further, which skin to choose? Where do I place the new version? What to name it? Is it now an option to load from the Poser library just like any other makeup MAT? Ond so on...

In all humility, I ask: could somebody please point me toward a tutorial or some literature on this subject? I did skim the Poser 9 manual and tried a search here in this forum, but nothing really popped out as an answer. If the answers I'm looking for are in the manual, could somebody please tell me where? Thank you.

I dont have the product, but I figures it is like this.

1 Back up the product files somewhere

2 Have the product open in Photoshop. You should see the layers of the product. I'll guess that the different options are in different layers. At this time I'd check the image size of the product. Is 3000x3000, 4000x4000 etc. (Menu>Image>Image size)

3 Open up a V4 Head texture. Also do a Menu>Image>Image size. Make this the same as the Product (or find one that matches because of scaling up and such...)

4 Select the V4 Head Texture and drag into the product. I'd drag it down to be the bottom layer.

5 Select from the Layers the makeup options you want. A little trick, select in the Layers, the topmost active layer, then hold (This is PC, not sure of matching Apple keys)

Shift + Control + Alt + E and this will make a new flattened layer of all the selected active layers WITHOUT FLATTENING the layers you have. That top most layer will have your V4 base head texture and the makeup options you selected.

6 Save out that top most layer under a new name. Save the current setup under a new name.psd, so all you have to do is load new name.psd, select different makeup options and repeat the above steps.

EDIT: Found the product. Wow spaces do count around here.... Readme says pretty much what I posted (I'd follow those instructions).

Hope this give you some help or points you in the right direction.

Also, whilst in it's own layer, you should be able to alter the colour by using Adjustments>Hue/Saturation or maybe mix and match bits of each option for a new look.

Just play around with the makeup layers adding bits of each option and rubbing out areas and mixing and blending, if you do this i'd work on 1 eye and duplicate that, flip it horizontally and move it across to the other eye. Then when satified with the results flattern the makup layer and resave that as a new option in psd format.

You can have quite abit of fun in photoshop just messing around with layers, it doesn't matter if you mess it up as you will have the back up zip file anyway :)

This is nothing to do with Poser so there's no point looking for anything in the manual.

This is about using Photoshop layers. If you have no experience of using them, you have a great deal to learn. Load up Photoshop's help files regarding layers, or buy a decent Photoshop book.

In Poser, in Material room / advanced view, spend some time on the various math nodes like Blender. They blend multiple image sources together, the Photoshop way. The Blender node itself for instance acts like the Photoshop Normal blending mode. For eaxample: take the Diffuse map out of the Diffuse channel, put it into Blender, put Blender into the Diffuse channel, and now add your extra makeup into the second Blender input. The Blending amount can be an image too (like Photoshop masking).

This is the way to add dirt stains on body, clothes etc in an undestructive (and even animatable) way. It keeps the original textures intact.

have fun.

Input_1 goes to the figures texture
Input_2 goes to the cloth texture
Blending goes to the mask.

The figure maintains its texture.
The mask puts the cloth texture ONLY over the figures texture where the cloth should be.

In the lower left hand you will see the Blender_5
Input _1 goes to Glossy
Input_2 goes to Blinn
Blender is at .5

here I just "Blend" the Glossy with the Blinn at half value each.

Further, you wil see a Math_Functions substract to build a Bump/Displacement from the cloth texture.

Have fun.

The first blender will be important for you.

This simply mixes a second texture with you main texture.
You can control the area by using a mask as i did for the cloth.

Study the Bender node and you will get there.

Happy Posering.
Tony

In adding to the photoshop technique, if the makeup product is directly on scale with the V4 base texture, open both files in photoshop, select your makeup, hold shift down and drag the makeup file to the V4 base texture.  All details will line up with base layer.

Attached Link: Kitty Dramatic Face

I have been playing around with the photoshop option first and will definitely move onto Poser's Blender function as well.

My first attempt was a failure, but an interesting one! I feel I came up with some very dramatic makeup for the 'Kitty' character (see link, above), but in doing so, I flattened everything down to a psd of the head skin, imported that into my Poser 'Textures' folder, and...nothing. So I gather that I must export the makeup layer only. Is that correct? And then it becomes an option for my character?

You can insert images within a post.  Linking to other sites could cause problems with viruses and malware. 

Merely importing into the texture folder does not automatically show up in Poser.  You must manually go into the material room and change the default texture to the new.  I would not recommend overwriting existing files, that will complicate issues if you ever want to reload your defaults.  Also, PSD files can become rather large and may slow Poser down when introduced.  I recommend creating your mats in Photoshop, flatten the layers, then export them as JPEG or PNG files.

*Also, in my hatse to send off the last reply, I wrote that "I flattened everything down to a psd of the head skin..." I meant to write jpg instead of psd. Sorry for the confusion. Is there any way to bring this into the Poser library as a head/face MAT (other than overwriting the original in the Material room)?

Or, now that I've clarified my error, I'll re-pose the additional question: should I follow the same process, yet only add the flattened jpg layers of makeup only.

I know my noob questions are annoying, but I'm really interested in being able to alter and create content as well, and because the learning curve is so steep, I feel forums are the best place to find out how. I'm comfortable with my Photoshop skills, I just have a really difficult time understanding how to integrate them into the Poser application and workflow. Please bear with me, and thank you all for your kind patience and advice.

Ooops !!! Something wrong with the lips, the set you buy is from old school for poser 4 ...

Look at http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=3875407&ebot_calc_page#message_3875407

Okay, I can see that I've been approaching this challenge from the wrong direction. I guess the short answer to my dilemma all along is actually: study the Materials section in the manual, especially 'Working with Nodes'.