And...I guess I'm done because Poser just crashed. So...if anything comes up, please let me know! Thanks!

Next, we'll plug our three sets of nodes into their respective homes in the shader.

• Make a Blender node and set its Blending value to 1.
• Plug the bikini mask into the Blending value of your recently made Blender node.
• Load the bump map for the skin texture - if one does not exist just use the skin texture as the map; this is just an example, after all.
• Make a Math node and change it to Cos with a value of "2"

, essentially turning your bikini map into grayscale then inverting that color. This will be your bump map value for the bikini since we...don't have a bump map for the bikini in the first place. Daz didn't make one - go figure!

When done, the result is something like what's displayed above.

First, reference your earlier Blender node for the diffuse map; the one with your bikini'd lass. See the Input_1 value that was used for the skin? Input_1 in your specular Blender node will handle the specular value for your skin as well.

• Go ahead and plug Blinn into Input_1 of your newly made Blender node.

I suppose you get where this is going...

Last, let's put this Glossy node to work. The Glossy node represents the bikini are's reaction to light and shadow. Let's do it!

• Plug that Glossy node into Input_2 of the new specular Blender node.

Again, good job! Next time, neighbor, we'll cover the the bump map deal.

Again, lets do this right.

• Make another Blender node and set the Blending to "1".
• Plug the mask into the Blending input of the new Blender node.

Lets decide on a Blinn node for the skin's specularity. So make one.

• New Node>Lighting>Specular>Blinn. Keep the settings at default.

Lets decide to make the bikini glossy - why not? So make a glossy node.

• New Node>Lighting>Specular>Glossy. Keep the settings at default.

• We just swap which images are in which Blender Inputs.

This concludes the diffuse part of this tutorial. Next, we'll tackle specularity in grand repative fashion! :D

Input the "V4SmplTorsoM_BKN_mask.jpg" mask into the Blending input of the Blender node.

As you can see, there is, now, a clear separation of both maps that are plugged into Blender. Bravo, you're captain of the starship cool'ness!

Well..almost. Aw man, what happened?! Well, nothing unexpected as we learn to control things. Next step, we'll take control of this situation.

• Make that Blender node and then...New Node>2D Textures>Image Map, and load that standard V4.
• Quick! Shove that new image map into "Input_1" of the Blender node we made earlier.

You should get this scene, shown above. - Next, bring in another image map - any image map using Victoria 4's torso...seriously, anything. Okay, well don't use the same map twice, smart-ass!

Plug this new map into Input_2 of the Blender node.

Wait...we're going to do something here... Next step is coming - I need to make a mask. Wait here. There's candy in the lobby.

• Next change the value Blending value to "0"(zero). You'll notice that 0(zero) favors the Red "Input_1" now.

Take a step back. Let's keep the Blender value at "0"(zero). Remember that - in a mask - anything white becomes visible and anything black becomes invisible. So, what does that mean when working with a Blender node? Let's see.

First thing, make a black and white checkered surface. To do this,

• New Node>2D Textures>tile
• Change the color of Tile_1 to Black
• Change the color of Tile_1 to White
• Plug Tile node into the Blending input of the Blending node. Remember that the Blending value should still be set to "0"(zero).

Notice there, at this point, no changes occuring in your Blender node. This is good, as there is "0"(zero) influence from the black and white mask on the Blender node. Next, let's maximize the influence of the Tile mask on the Blender node. To do this,

• Change the Blender value to "1"(one)

Notice that anything white in the Tile mask causes the Blender node to use the Input_1 color(Red). Anything in black from the Tile mask causes the Blender node to use the Input_2 color(Blue). Cool!

Quote - didn't mean to sound dense ... if ya check the pic I posted I think i got it .... not 100% sure but ..... posted forthe pro to check out ... aka you ...

:P I don't think you're dense. No one knows how to do all this stuff except bagginsbill and he'd tell you I'm doing it incorrectly, anyway - I am. Believe me, this stuff is immensly more complicated than what I actually release to the public; I water everything down in hopes the end product renders faster and is easier for everyone to grasp. All learning takes time, though - I used to HATE doing textures...couldn't get me to make a UVmap for a cube! That was years ago, and now I can do most things in a 3D pipeline. I've no doubt anything we're doing today will be simple by standards set in the near future.

I really just want anyone reading this forum to understand the concepts behind how things work in Poser. With that in mind, lets begin the next round of know-how to increase community awareness.

How about this? Red and blue make purple, yeah? SO...lets try taking the color red and the color blue and mixing them together inside the Material Room.

New Node>Math>Simple Color. Make this Red.
New Node>Math>Simple Color. Make this Blue. New Node>Math>Blender.

Into the Blender node, plug Simple Color:Red into "Input_1"
Into the Blender node, plug Simple Color:Blue into "Input_2"

Blender node "Blending" should be set at "0.5"
Congratulations! You now have the color Purple!

So...a Blender node blends things together. Blender can blend two skin textures together or...mix two specular types together so you have Gloss and Blinn at the same time! The uses are endless, but let's keep it this simple for now: Blenders mix things, like colors.

Quote - could I bug ya for a bigger better screen shot then?

Its the same as in the videos. I can't really show anything differently, or I would. Honest!

Do i need to make a video explaining how to use masks in Poser? I could do that.

Quote - dumb question time .... is that adding the mask to my set up or my setup to the mask one?

Do whichever works, actually. In my example, I altered a setup that already had a mask in it; the mask was in the Blender node that was plugged into Scatter, plugged into "alt_diffuse color" .

How to make the "Bloody" Drow into a muddy drow

The link for the video is above. URL is below.

http://youtu.be/_KATtMuUzVA