Trying to get reasonably adept at Poser, but feel like I am drowning. Character face turns black upon render. Think it is because a jpeg file needs to be a bum file. If so, how do I convert jpeg to bum?

If you're using Poser without the Pro Pack, load the JPG into the bump area of the materials dialog and it will convert it.

Be sure you aren't applying a transmap to the texture area. That could turn the face to turn black. Melanie

Check your lighting?

I JPG loaded in the bump channel by a MATpose will render blackish in non PP Poser.

If your using a MAT pose, in addition to converting the .JPG into a .BUM you'll also want to do a find and replace for "jpg" with "bum" in the Mat pose file. Chris Cox

i believe i remember that .bums are the same as .bmps. save your .jpg as .bmp and then rename it to *.bum.

We need a utility that will convert jpg's to bumps en masse so when we go to apply a material pose, it's there and ready rather then "can't find file blah blah blah" or other such horrors -WTB

it's possible it could be the Mat pose file itself, I found with some the skin colour gets changed to black

Here's one MAT thing that confused the heck out of me at first. Some MAT Pose files have MATS that should only be used with Poser Pro. If you use them with Poser, you get a black face! You can tell which is which. Look at the screenshot. You see some one that says M2Map2P4. That is used with Poser. M2Map2 is used with Poser Pro. You don't always see both options. When you do, use the P4 MATS with Poser 4. Does this make sense? If you only have Poser 4, and don't plan on getting Poser Pro, you can safely delete the Poser Pro MATS.

Ron, your viaual aids are excellent. Great work. I rendered an image the other day in which the figure's face turned jet black with only the lips and eyebrows showing. It turns out that I had inadvertently loaded the eyelash/eyebrow transparency into the texture area. In a transmap, everything except for the part you want to show is black on the image. It'll turn your face totally black. Well, your figure's face, not yours (LOL). This is why I suggested this above. It looked very strange. The description Shorterbus described at the top of this thread sounds like that. It doesn't mention the "rolling in the fireplace" appearance, when the PPP bump is applied, it says "black." That's why I thought it might be the transmap applied in the texture area, because i accidentaly did this just a few days ago. Melanie

You're probably right, Melanie! I just couldn't resist throwing out my previous PPP vs P4 MAT discovery, grin!

Man, am I feeling loved! It was a jpeg to bum file conversion situation. Made the conversion as JeffH's instructions and problem was solved. Thanks for the help.