"It's more like 1 direction for me at the moment, because I really don't get how Poser's bulging works. :-)"

It's easy as pie.

First convert the joint to weightmaps.

Then weightmap the joint with bulge maps disabled:

Here's Aiko 3 - WM with the right thigh set to max side-side without bulge maps:

To influence the inside of the thigh, the value of the "left neg" Bulge has to be set to a value smaller than 1.

In this case I just used the default value of her original sphere-map bulge, which was -0.121.

I started painting the Bulgemap by first removing the original bulging. Just use substract vertex at a high value.

Then carefully paint the bulge with a very light setting and appropiate sized brush. You want to "feather" the weightmap.

Switch between adding and smoothing often until you get a nice, even result:

You can also influence the bulgemap by changing its value.

Here I raised "left-neg" to -0.3 while not changing the Bulgemap itself:

You can compensate for a higher value by "easing off" the Bulgemap. (Or even the actual Weightmap)

It's a bit tricky finding the right balance between all three factors, and sometimes you find the ideal solution just by sheer dumb luck!

Do the full extreme poses first, then try to find a good compromise with the limb set halfway between full side-side and bend.

It's easy to get bogged down if you want to find the "perfect" solution. Just try another day, then.

Or just use a JCM!  ;-)

I (usually) don't weightmap "twist". With correct joints, spheres are usually quite sufficient to handle this.

Same with fingers.

(Sphere maps are easier to "convert" and use up less resources, so I only weightmap joints that really benefit from it)

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Also, don't be "afraid" of high rez meshes.

I found it easier to weightmap Aiko 3 than the Aiko 4 LOD 4K figure I converted.

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Anything else, just send me a PM

:-)

Oh, and when it comes to weightmapping, there ARE several ways to skin a cat.

This is just the way I do things. If you find another workflow that better agrees with you, just go for it.

It's the end result that counts.