Here's another odd trick of relfect mapping I stumbled on, from the "because I didn't know any better!" school of rendering... ;] Take a character, any character. Take a texture and bump and apply them. Then take the same texture, and in the materials editor, apply it in the reflection mapping channel as a reflect map. Set it to by color and by lights, and set the reflection strength to between 15% and 26% [depending on the texture... ] Add a good set of lights and render for an interesting texture look. ;] So far, since I first went "Hrmmmm... wonder what would happen if I... ?", I've tried it on a half dozen or so Mike and vicki textures with decent results. At very low reflect levels, it adds a element of richness to the texture, and at about 22-25% strength, it adds a decent "perspiration sheen" with the right lights. At higher levels of reflection strength than 27-30%, it gets wierd. Don't go there. It's not pretty. Shown here on Quim2001's zulu texture as both texture and reflect map. I don't know if the image res is good enough to show off the look the way it does on my workstation's monitor... Heh. If I'm not careful, I'm going to inherit Bloodsong's rep as one of those people who try wierd stuff, and then get people wandering off scratching their heads going "Well, it's cool, but why in the heck would ANYONE ever try that in the first place... ?" *grin* Does anyone else have any tricks they've tried that sounded bizarre when they thought of them, but worked in practice?

Ah. Combining different textures in the texture and reflection map channels, say, Zulu and Kane, can create some interesting looks also at various strengths.

When loading your textures to an all-white model, set the eyeballs for 80% on the black/white scale, giving them a slight grey tinge. When the eyeball texture is applied, it has a much more realistic feel.

Cool. Thanks VS. That one I'll give a shot while I'm puttering. Have you tried setting the highlight colors to a dark bluish to give them the "blue-white" tinge healthy eyes have in some lighting? shrug I kind of took the day off today to basically putz around on my workstation and try odd stuff and see what happened. My relax by experimentation day... no real goal in mind, just have fun and see what works and what doesn't.

Thanks, Ironbear! Never woulda thought of that. This might sound sort of obvious, but it's yielded some awesome results for me: For a cool abstract background, use Nerd's backdrop prop or the RDNA Infinity Cove. In the materials editor, make object and ambient color solid black, highlight and reflective colors white. Apply a very simple reflection map, starfield, or some such uncomplicated image as the texture (or use none.) Use a more colorful or textured reflect map as "reflection map" (set to 90 - 100%.) Highlight: 90%. Trans sliders "off." Obviously this is using a "chrome" technique on the backdrop. With some clever planning and lucky experimentation, you can get some beautifully smooth abstract effects. The attached render shows this effect using two metallic reflection maps on the drop.

Iron Bear,

Only the fog . . .

Nice tricks!! I'll try them out.

• TJ

Thanks, cool tip, xocononstle. And Bikermouse ;] I'm afraid I don't do much with fog in poser... I tend to export to bryce for atmosphreic effects. Still handy for when you need a fast effect. I'm afraid that this is a lot of what I do with poser these days when I have time to play: rather than do finished images, I open it up, and try off the wall stuff to see what happens. If it works, then I note it for later referrence. If it don't... I close it quick before anyone else notices. ;]

Something else that is probably obvious but... There are a few hair props out there like Lourdes' MikeHair that's built in layers with transparencies. If you set the object colour of the inner layer slightly darker than the outer (with the same texture map on both), you get an interesting mingling of shades that makes the hair look more realistic.