Many Thanks to those who advised me on How to put downloaded Characters into Poser. I have now sorted that out. But as usual for beginners one problem provides another. Questions: (I) How do you convert a jpeg to tiff or Bmp in Poser, and does this only apply with Poser 3 Models? (2) Can You put Poser 3 models into Poser4 with Pro pack.if so what alterations do I have to Make? (3)When I go to load models into the Poser studio it asks sometimes for bumps,trans etc.Where do these come from? Any help would be appreciated. Cheers arrow1

1. You don't. Poser doesn't have any graphics converting features, so you would need to use a 2d paint program to convert the files (some image viewers can do that too). Note that you don't need a tiff or bmp. Poser can apply a jpg as a texture, and I recommend you use them. The file sizes of tiff and bmp will limit how much you can get in a scene -- the size of textures is a big factor for Poser. If you load a figure and it asks for a bmp or tiff but you have a jpg, just click the button to tell poser to stop looking, then apply the jpg with the materials dialogue. If you then resave the item to the library, it won't ask you anymore and will just go ahead and load the jpg. 2. Sure. P4 can use any prior version model. The default figure is the P2 man, and there are several P3 figures in the default library. 3. You apply bumps and transmaps in the materials dialogue box just like a texture. Bump maps tell poser where the peaks and valleys are (depth mapping, for example to make skin look like skin instead of paint), transmaps tell poser which parts of the texture to render (for example you can create holes and rips in clothing). Transmaps also make hair look 5000% better. 99.99% of the time, its the same name as the texture you are using, but has "bump" or "trans/transmap" in the filename. Just look in the same directory as the texture for that part. Keep plugging away at it...its a little confusing at first, but you'll get there!

1.) Sometimes you get a figure that needs to have the file converted to a format such as tif. It won't work unless that file is converted. Poser has a nasty habit of totally freezing sometimes if it doesn't get what it wants. Read the readme file, and see if any conversion is necessary before you load the figure. 3.) Sometimes you don't get a bumpmap in bum format. Sometimes it's saved in jpg format just to save space when downloading. You need to get these files converted to bum format. Soemtimes the file name will give you a clue. Look at this screenshot, and see the file names with "bmp" in the name. That is one clue there. When in doubt, read the readme file.

The easiest way I know to convert to bumps is to load anything into Poser. You can load Dork, or just load a prop. Then go into Render, Materials.

Click on Load Bump Map

Chose the file to be converted. Poser will ask if you want to convert the file. YES. If there are more files to convert, repeat the process. If you do this work ahead of time, you eliminate the possibiliy of Poser freezing on you.

hi there, i found out that poser only converts tiff file to bump file if the tiff is in 24bit rgb - if the tiff is in 8bit greyscale nothing at all happens ...

Poser Pro Pack does not convert the jpg to .bum - it uses the jpg instead. You only get problems if you are loading a character that calls for a .bum and the download has only provided you with jpg's. My Poser decides to freeze instead taking the jpg for the bum. Only thing left to do is to edit the Cr2 and change the file extension from .bum to jpg with search and replace.

In my experience, the best way to fix something is to go ahead and load it if possible. Then make your corrections by choosing the proper items, etc. Then resave the item to your library. I'm lazy, and this works!

The biggest problem with ProPack is that it freezes if the CR2 (Character) you are using calls for a bump map and it's not there. The easiest solution to this problem is to load another copy of Poser without ProPack in another directory for the sole purpose of making bumps for those CR2s that ask for them. Another method is when the first call for a bump map comes is to take any bump map handy, copy it to whatever directory you're using and rename it to the name of that which is called for.