So pushed a clamp node between ... the preview of the math nodes looks similar but as I thought there is only a tiny part really white=1.

So after clamp the pattern material stretches over the complete white area.

B.t.w. I have used the same pattern like you. Only I colored some cord's with blue and red for the crossing and green for that outside. It's only the have better view on the small render preview window.

I did some experiment's with more or less success ...

This is your original setup used on the bodysuit. I have set the 2 in the math node for the fractal sum path to 20 only to have the pattern seam more visible in front. With 2 it's right between the legs.

As I understood we have 3 parts in that setup.

First the fractal sum with companion is giving the needed path.

Second at the bottom the math nodes with v-component. That V goes also to the fractal sum (X) only to "matched" V with the x-y-z coordinates for the visibility at the match point. I'm right.
The visibility for V is running through the complete material group ... in our exercise.

So third at the top we have the u-component and here neccessarily the path from fractal sum is needed to have the right direction for the seam.

In both, 2. and 3. part, the reduction for the used pattern is done. In this case 1/80th to fit nice to the path.

Yeah, something like this was in my mind ... only overlooked the blender node ... :sad:
The rest should work with simply changing the u- and v-component for the material and this only for the displaxement cause all other isn't unique in direction.

This should also work for your problems with the poke through's between the breasts but is on the second bodymap.

Have some trouble with the leg seam's (BB please look to the other thread).

So might be I do something for the second skin first ... on tomorrow or later ... cause I have first to clarify (again) something regarding some unfriendly guy's named Lehman and Brother's ... by profession seem's they are being banksters ... :cursing:

That's why I'm loving Startrek for example ... never seen a POS or ATM or credit card or something annoying there ... worst they have been faced with was low energy for the food replicator ...

Quote - - I don't think it's possible to remap V4 in a Material pose without causing the user some difficulties, is it?  Hmm..

That's correct. That mean's remapping and the new "right arm" have to go in the obj file as material group. Ok, using RTEncode or such the changed mesh could be distributed. But I think it's mostly worthless, even if some people would love such "corrected" uvmapped mesh, but normally no one will load a special V4 only for use of one outfit. And for other use it's senseless cause no existing texture map would fit to the right arm.

Quote - - You know, could it be possible to build two material settings for the arm within the same Material pose?  They don't actually share the exact same portion of the mapped textures after all.  The left and right arm textures are on different portions of the texture map, if I recall correctly.  One would just have a extra set of maps in it that over-rode one portion of the UV and a new, reversed, setting to switch orientations just on that certain portion of the UV?  So, for one part of the map it would go one way, and using a transmap on the other portion, the other material UV setting would be in the opposite orientation..   Do you think that is possible?

I'm knowing what you mean and first approach was to say yes. But with a second look the transparency channel could not help. Even there it's 2 pieces in the uv-map it's one material in the poser mat room. So the effect have to be split in the displacement channel. All except the displacement is direction independent.

I have asked Bagginbill for assistence to have a better lace on the left and right leg seams.
He has made a fine example for having a procedural texture on only a small part of the complete material area. In his example the special pattern runs along a line build by the fractal sum.

And now I'm fiddeling with the problem to have that pattern not run along somethere but exactly along a given line in the uv-map. If that works it should be combined with other material in the rest outside of that line.

But as you see it's the same problem as for the right arm. Each time we have a area to be taken from uv-map for one pattern and to be combined with a other pattern outside that area.
In one case we have leg seams and rest of the leg and in the other case we have right arm and rest of the body, here simply the left arm.

So it's not trivial ... might be only not for me. I'm on the way and hopeful nevertheless and if the one problem is solved the right arm should work the same manner. I would say "stay tuned ..."

B.t.w. it seem's that the UFO forehead hair style comes to vogue ... if I look at pitklad's first hair creation in the poser forum here ...

That this case was really for the makeup ... huh ... that addiction to future but possible realities ... but that's the difference between european and american scifi ... or does someone remember Uhura or at least Janeway working on their makeup's ... not to think that Spock is wearing something like a moustache-trainer to keep his ear's spiky while sleeping ... :laugh:

Might be he as even all that little nice elves would have problems nowadays there it's forbidden by law to arrest dog ear's and e.g. all the shepherd dog's have flabby ear's instead their fine upright ones ... tz, tz, tz, ... poor Mr. Spock ... :rolleyes:

Wow, look's really great ...

And that boots are not so bad ... it's for sure the outdoor work(wo)man's version with buildin steel caps ... but there have been hangar's and heavy tool's and vehicles so it's saving the cute toe's ... ok, ok, V4's toe's are not so cute as they could be but need's safety too ...

Only seen problem is not your's ... comparing to other figures V4's feet seem's to be to long ...  making especialy round shoe looking a bit oversized ...

Your problem with the flying off belt buckle might be the origin. If the part's of 1figure have different origins sometimes if scaling all together they drift apart. I get this effect also sometimes in C4D.

The problem with the fabrics on the arm's is the u-v orientation. Look's like a bug not a general feature cause the legs are correct. If both arm's had different material zone it would be no problem. Switching U and V component would solve it on the right arm. But as I remember both arm's share one mat zone. Only quick solution for V4 creating a new mat zone for the right arm.

Hi,

I yesterday experimented a bit with P6 and so found that the mathematical behavior was the same.
Seem's I had the luck never to come to that up to now ... ok, I used displacement sparse, much more often bump. Displacement is a bit more critical in strenght of effect ... the values needs very fine tuning.

Whow ... that's what I'm looking for ... great, great, great, ... :thumbupboth:

Even that pattern you used ... ok, the outside lace could be cut away but that 2 crossing "ropes" being the main part could be easily seen as 2 strings concatenating the both sides of the pants. Having some values from greyscale on that map we have a fine dsiplacement or bump map as also a color map.

And with not very much nodes we can use that in all conditions. So no need to change material for closeups. Superp ...

40000 * 40000 pixels ... I for sure have overseen some advertising Smith Micro gave out than transferring Poser to the CRAY ...   I think also in 10 years no normal pc would be able to handle such size images.  So your  method  comes in handy for long times ...

This node setup look's not very complicated ... very understandable.
So instead of the fractal sum parts the uv-map, which is giving the desired path, have to implemented. Am I right ?
And that then combined with the rest of all outside material. Sounds as not too complicated procedure. Good to have tomorrow as a free day ... I'm experimenting on that.

Normally a value plugged into the scale channels should, as I understood, give the posibility to externally control (multiply) the scale value. In this sense your exploitation might be more a found bug than a undocumented feature. As I have read these are all features from the underlaying render engine which is no invention of poser. So could be interesting how this renderer is treating that feature if not implemented in poser but stand alone.
But never the less, feature or bug, until the next full version number we are sure that it's working ... as I know poser developing also for some more versions ...

The problem with the seam on the uv-map for the bodysuit is not a great one. That needed seam is so small that I have no problem to hold the complete area on one side (front or back) of the bodysuit. Or I take a pattern that not neccessarily needs to match between front and back.
Especially I think of a "boatswain's seam" which in realitiy is used sewing two parts of a sail without any overlapping of the sail parts. So the fibre seen rightside over the sail will vanish under the leftside sail and vice versa. And then it's no problem that the fibres don't match in the middle.
So this problem could seen as solved.

And for use as V4 second skin it's even no problem cause at the position where the lace shall be the uv-map isn't split.

I'm with you in your critics where the cut's of the bodysuit are placed. They are not only on the outer leg side but also at the inner. The uv-map of the legs is made up from FOUR pieces, left front, left back and right front, right back. I think they did this in accordance to a pant which normally have seams at that places. And alongside the outer seam's the bodysuit has a morph to simulate such a real seam.

But on other hand I don't anderstand this ... V4 and the bodysuit coming from the same house (DAZ). Second skins on V4 and the bodysuit are two connatural posibilities to have a full body clothing so it would be a great advantage to have a similar map. Not in mat zones but in the all over shape ... rather strange ... :unsure:

I come back with some experimental results ...

Yes and No ... good or bad ...

As far as I know it was a problem for example for Posette and in older Poser versions that indeed INTERNALLY similary named figure parts, e.g. character and conformed clothes, reacted to the same parameter dial(s). That was / might be a flaw in internal renumbering of the parts that poser is doing on each load of figures.

That was fixed but as I understood not only in SR3 but even before.

On other hand lot's of modern V4 clothings (e.g. yasmina's or honguy's) using crosstalk to have the cloths morphed accordingly to figures settings they are conformed to.

So technically not complete sure what and how is fixed ... but had no such problems since P6 ...

morkonan , just found this link in a other thread here around. It's about moddeling as shoe. Though for Wings3D but except the commands the process should work in each modeller.
http://www21.brinkster.com/jrcsurvey/tutorials/alana/Index.html

If the boots are not so pointy but more round that's perfect. See that image and also I remember that in the 70th that was the fashion. Spiky foot's like in example idler's V4 Tightboots or normal boots is timely more located in the 90th up to now. In early/mid 60th (James Dean time) I remember that men are wearing very spiky shoe's ... not the best for the toe's. Women's fashion don't know ... not really in my view/interests at that time ... was somewhat of 4 to 7 so tough boy's had been cool not really little girlies ... soccer ball's in front of other type's of , umh, ball's ... :biggrin:
http://ufoseries.com/photos/ellisClothesChange.jpg

Regarding that "visor contacts" found that 2 images. Looks like a flat silver pickle.
ufoseries.com/photos/ellisCloseup.jpg
ufoseries.com/photos/ellisCloseup3.jpg

Hi paramount,
glad I could help you a little ...

Photography was my biggest hobby for 15, 20 years including a small laboratory at the end.
And there I learned my lessons first cause use of real films was expensive. So you looked more than once if the picture was well composed to suppress waste of material. Digital photo's makes things much cheaper and easier but not neccessarily better.

And second a had a friend who was really a semi professional on that and I learned a lot of his knowledge.

The lab was mainly to try artistic effects. Also not cheap and extremly time consuming. So as software became grown up and computer's tend's to give user's a chance to play with them I switched off the warmwater color processing. The advantage of that digital work was to stop or start with it as you had time and not as the chemistry was mixed and ready.

But cheap it wasn't also not in the beginning ... my first 468 (real 20 Mhz) with it's incredible 80 Mb harddrive and 256 color vga-card cost's 8000 DM that's round 4000 Euro ... and 6 month later for the same prize you got 33 Mhz and 120 Mb ... :cursing:

Some years ago I have cleared out lot's of (paper) photo magazin's  from over 10 year's ... sometimes it's neccessary to find again all corner's of a room ... :rolleyes:
In that magazin's every month the editor's staff published best pictures send from the readers.
Looking on that through all that year's in one go it was interesting to see how quality and especial creativity descends while digitalisation ascends. Might be that this also went hand in hand with quicker rotation (less expertise) of peoples in the editor's staff ... times became more and more stressy ... and looking to lot's of image galleries in internet today, oh boy, there a millions of picture times ago nobody would have take his photobox out of the pocket. I hate that shots with mobile telephones ... ... and that people than thinking they would be the new Piccaso and the world is waiting for their rubbish.

Ok, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and we all started from scratch ... but also less could be more ...

B.t.w. your time problem and/or sorting your runtimes ... well, you are not alone ... got me round 4 weeks to sort only my V4 runtime with all the stuff found over the last year. And there are waiting round 2500 zip's and rar's with stuff for Posette, V2, V3 (and also their men), buildings, vehicles and other stuff. Lot's never needed but than you are searching for something you know you have seen and it's in some archive but WHERE ...

And it's not only saving on the runtime ... lot's of thingies have crude path's in it or other problem's and poser bothers you searching that things ... for example in that lovely V4 Sexy Leathers I used for the skirt someone was so clever to delete all parameter dials from the body section. I wanted to move the unconformed cloth some 100 out of the way to have a look to the material without the skirt and first had to rebuild the dials an that ...

Also with that lot'S of magnets in V4 I'm sometimes not happy. They are done fore more realism but in some not too extrem poses it looks as if they are blowing up a limb more as good. With the effect that even morphed clothing wouldn't conform any more ... strange ...

But your pc memory seem's very small ... 3 full clothed V4's are no problem to me ... though there might be than some funny effects. If posing the clothing tend's to come later ... nude vicky is moving and her dress running behind ... :laugh:
But as said for scenery with more people I love Posette and without closeups she is a beauty too. Having terrain, a tower, row boat and 8 Posettes and 1 V2 and 1 V3 in a scene is not a big problem.

That behavior with new contents you're describing ... really strange ... didn't have such. Normally poser find's or ask's for something. Ok, not ever what it's finding is what it's looking for and what you think it should find but in libraries mostly not a problem. Even more than reusing saved PZ3.
Regarding that magnet loading and freezing ... might be that there are flaws with the readscripts for loading also that technics introduced with V4 to update their CR2 etc. are somewhat mysterious. I have reading through the tutorials and "white papers" publish by DAZ and even I'm a professional in such stuff like software structure or workflow charts I'm lot's away in getting the hang of that ... really ...

Apropos flaw, bug, irritation ... in my newest material for the legseamed displacement (the mt5 as also than the resulting mc6) is something not working as foreseen. And I'm not sure if it is new with Poser7 or was also in the earlier versions.

I have combined the displacement uv-map and the stripy material with the ADD function in the math node directly going to the displacement channel. And if looking in that node pictures all is running well.
We have a clear black-white image meaning black = 0 = no displacement and white = 1 = full displacement. But looking very tight into the render I found that all white areas comes with different displacement heights.

Mathematical it's easy found. In both input channels are black-white maps and adding them we get black + black = 0 = black, black + white = 1 = white AND white + white = 2 = whiter as white (advertising for washing agent ).
Up to now I was in the opinion that the resulting map was used for further work and no the numerical result.  But this declares the seen discrepancies.

If using that material you should take MAX instead of ADD as function. MAX will compare both inputs and take the higher value. So white + white results as 1 = white and the displacement is on equal height all over. In this case this will work perfect ... with greyscales one have to look carefully. So things can be tricky ... must have sometimes a look to the other pc and it's Poser 5 if it will react in the same manner ... :unsure:

So further on happy rendering ... time to look for some evening meal ...

Thanx for these links ...

Matmatic is already on my harddrive but only as download in archive. I'm hanging lot's back with updating my runtimes. As first I updated my V4 runtime. Year's ago people often used no path's in zipfiles so you needed to sort the things by hand to directories.

Now the runtime structure is in zip but people often forget to have the correct path's also in the CR2, PP2, PZ2, .... so again lot's of work even if using a organiser software.

So V3/M3 is awaitung update and than architectural runtimes and so on ... and there is also a bunch zip's with scripts, python, tools, ... From that your leg stocking shader's have the highest priority ... b.t.w. really great stuff.  Especially that idea with the color matrix is super. With the normal poser/windows color selector it's sometimes a lot of trial and error to find a correct choice cause you have to go back and fore a lot to see if the color really looks well on the complete cloth part. So having a bunch of fine tuned matching theme related color's in one pallet is a great help. :thumbupboth:

As far as I have lurked through the matmatic thread's I understood that it will help greatly to create patterns, textures and so on of all kind.
But has it also abilities to position the pattern exactly on the figure where it belongs.

So my main problem at the moment is less to have a texture as such but to have it at that small leg seam.

B.t.w. in my legseam material I have combined the uv-map with the stripe shader in the last node going to the displacement channel. For that combination I used the ADD function that gave a clear black und white map. So should work as none or full displacement.

Yesterday I have looked much much closer to the rendering and found that white is not equal white in that last node. That makes different displacement along that seam there it should have the same amount.

Mathematical it is correct. So there the black parts of both inputs comes together it's zero. Black and white adds correctly to 1 and where both inputs are white the result is 2.
But I was surprised that Poser 7 is using the numerical equivalent of that transaction and not the shown grafical interpretation. So in this fact we have white (1) and whiter than white (2).
Is this a new behavior in P7 or did P6/P5 it in the same manner. I didn't recognise that before.
I now have changed the ADD to MAX. So using this I get only 0 or 1 but this might not be sufficent in case grey value's are used in such surroundings.

As also I have found that under some circumstances it's not enough to set transparency to 1 to have some clothparts invisible. I had to go to 2 or even 5. I didn't see such behavior before and hidding part's by full transparency is a often used trick of cloth texture designers.

I know that poser creators switched something in that themes, e.g. the filtering options for texture maps. But did they also change on the interpretations of that numerical parameters ?

Hey, that's really great ... looks absolutely natural ...

Is it done in Poser's shader system or in a "full-grown" app like 3DSMax or C4D or only renderer specific ?

If Poser how will this influence rendertime? Do you have a mt5 so I could test a bit ?

I think the UV map is not bad only that the coordinates from back and front seem's not match exactly. But the polygons are running straight along the used seam. Only problem that the map is very tiny to be used for texturing.

But with such a procedural shader this should not be a problem as I understand.
Otherwise rendertime will also be no problem if using two different material collections. One with less/no detail for normal scenery images and a second one if making a closeup and also only if legs are in view.

Think we should give that a try ... means I will need a small example to figure out how to do so.

B.t.w. I just had a look to a other thread regarding "making surfaces glow". By using spot or point lights I have found that these don't respect physical limits. They illuminate things through non transparent objects like wall's or such. Mean's a person behind the wall will get light and throw shadows  as if directly in the spot/point light.
That seem's to be a poser and/or render engine bug. Did you have also such experience and might be you found a workaround ?

For my big hands a bit too small in abdomen ... have fear to break her ... :tt2:
But otherwise sadly I'm not aboard on that ship for a little talk with her ... :tongue1:

But apropos aboard ... is the alien in there ... her look and gesture tend's me to think she might see something not very amusing ... has the touch as if she next turns left and start's to run for her life ... :ohmy:

@morkonan
I think we can make a hand shake ... as I said some postings back I (and also seems some more modellers) have my problems with the foot section of boots.
I didn't see yours but from your words I guess they are becoming to big, right ? Did you for example consider that it's possible to build the foot region more lean cause it's possible to hide V4's foots. So no need that the figures foot is covered correctly.

For the makeup ... that girls had something like a round point or bullet left and right at the eye corners. If we would be on Startrek next generation I would have identified that as the contact's for such a thing like engine officer's visor ...

@paramount
That closeup image is much much better, especially the shadows are now fine tuned without that hard "interrogation light" ...

But with a view to the lights I see something I meaned to see also in your first image. You have a highlight on the top of the hair as also on the left side bang. But the region between this 2 points is lots darker ... might it be that your lights are rather near to the figure or the spot angle is very small?

If yes, you might try to give them more distance and than if neccessary you can tune the spot lights with the 4 parameters for angle and distance. Though that can be tricky and might be a thing of trial and error. The illusion of the lights in the preview with full shaded is mostly far away from the result if rendered.

And for all lighting, in german we have a saying that never a master is falling from sky. Don't know if it's fitting right in english but has the meaning that one have to try, learn, try, learn, and again and again until sometimes becoming great.
Especially the lighting is one of the most complicated themes ... having lots of own tutorials and complete books. The effects are the same as in photography but the technical side is much more complicated. So myself didn't work up to now with such things as AO or IBL. Trying first to come to good results with the base parameters and also trying to keep my memory alive and the rendertimes in handy regions. B.t.w. 10 minutes rendertime normally is a nothing even for testrenders. Ok, as long as possible so while dressing the puppets, building the scene, posing and so on I only work without any raytrace and/or shadowmaps.

Shadowmaps is even my main hate ... normally they tend to crash the render process and on other hand mostly the shadows doesn't fall right or looks unrealistic ... my opinion and experience.
Without shadowmap there is more memory for the models, ok, than with raytrace the processor(s) have to work harder. But that's their task for what they are paid, aren't they.
And I think that's a task they enjoy more ... something other like all days only waving the adminstrative rubbish that microsoft programmers has forgotten to decontaminate from windows.

Apropos rubbish, on your next way's with poser and lighting be prepared for some surprises build in at no extra cost. For example the spot lights are also shining through complete walls and other very robust things. With that in reality we could save lot's of energy. If your neighbors left and right switch on their lights you could save your own lamps
For example I tried a halloween image with a couldron. Placed a spotlight in aiming to the top as if light is coming from the soup. Up to top it worked. Also the sides of the couldron are dark. But vicky's feet and other things standing beneath the couldron are highly lighted and producing shadow to wall and floor. Very annoying. This seams to be a problem of spot and point light. The global lights don't have that problem but are not usable for that effects.

But you will find that this are not the only problems (bugs) build in into poser. Otherwise show me one, only one bugfree software. So for the price and with look to the enormous number of owner's of the programming team I think poser is really not as bad as some people are saying.
And as system developer I know what talking about.

Though especially to that aspect there are some bugs I'm really angry about. For example that bug in working with directory path's finding textures and sometimes also object files. Even if there is a complete path equal if relative notation (MAC style) or with complete structure (Windows style) poser tends to take the first file coming along with the same filename.

I once have spend hours to find my mistake as some boots for Posette first didn't conform right and second looked untextured. And that happened sometimes and sometimes not.
The point was there had been two different boots in two different path's having the same object filename but naturally different characteristics and map zones. If working from the library pallet Poser took the right one and also wrote the right path to PZ3. But loading the PZ3 it took what came in handy firsttime ... what a mess. I had to rename the object file and also all refences to that. And this is something a normal programmer should have learned in his first lessons ... a unforegivable bug ... if he had been in my team he would have had a very bad day for sure ... :cursing:

B.t.w. talking about learning, that word "gusto" wasn't a name or abbreviation it was simply meant in the sense of taste, smack, flavor. Sometimes I have to use the dictionary ... my problem in languages since school times equal if english, latin, basic, pascal or html. Yes, also with common computer languages in projects I need the reference handy to have sometimes a look into. Things to be learned in a logical way are well but to learn something by heart only memorizing in brain it's a other thing.
So I was happy finding gusto thats the same as in german and used that. Seem that it is not so common in english ... ok, in german too it's a bit more oldfashioned ...

Bagginsbill is right. Gamma correction is a point but it depends also a lot on the characteristics of the output medium. So paper, photo print or monitor needs very specific gamma correction.
In that closeup for my gusto (here we are again), äh, ok, my taste your darker version looks more "charming". With the gamma corrected the colors tend to bleach out. Especial with respect to the background prop it's to lightened ... the mysterious touch goes a small bit down the drain.

That's also a point in the full lenght render. There is to much light in it.
First from photographic point of view the highlight areas of the silver suit have lost their structures ... overexposure. Might be also a bit too much refection in the silver color. Looks less than fabics more like metal.
And second with respect to the artistic theme the wall is covered with rust and dirt ... so ok, might be they invested all money into the lamps but normally such surroundings are more or less rather dark.

One last critics to that image but not specific to it.
Did you hear somethere from the "golden section", might be better found in english as "Golden ratio".It's the name for a very very old experience since the day's of the old masters in painting. Meaning that the main object never ever should be positioned in the middle.
This is a great arts theory with lot's of mathematical backgrounds. You might look to wikipedia.
For our purpose at the moment it's enough to move vicky somewhat out of the middle ... so to 2/3 or 3/5 ... and also rotate the camera a bit so that the background get's a angle away from the 90 degree view ... making some perspective in x-z-axis as also might be y-axis.

Hey the V4 Cami is a good choice. Have to try it.
I love that boots. Have them too. Though I hope Vicky has not to walk through that door. Than she might get problems with her heel's ... :tt2:  But hey, that's normal in fanstasy images ... swordfighting amazones on 6 inch heel's ... poor gal's, there must be lot's of orthopedist 's  work in that worlds  ...  :laugh:  OK, no complaint, that's the charme of that artistic genre we all love a little bit or more ...

B.t.w. with respect to your figures character ... it's at the moment the 24-day's-of-advent-time so you can be a busy bee collecting lot's of freebies from the calender's. I don't know if your on that way but over there at 3D-arena today's freebie is a character with lot's of the touch in your image. I will give the link though not sure if it is completely in line with the TOS not to post links outside rendo. But it's not a comercial ... ok, in this moment ... let's try ... http://3-darena.com/Market/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=1454

Regarding the super Naika V4 morphs I had a view to the promo page. That's a huge amount of morphs. Are they used additional to the V4++ or with V4Basic. If additional .... poor memory ... I mean V4 plus morphs makes 44Mb plus object file plus textures that's filling up nicely the memory. As I said ... for more crowded images P4 Posette is nevertheless my favorite.

If you look for other forums with good advices for all skill's from newbie to expert besides the freebies and poser forum here. You could go to DAZ Commons and partly Freepozitory, good for freebies less for discussions on how to. In the commons you have to sort out between commercials and the rest of threads in that als lots of good advice could be found.
And than naturally RDNA. There are some real great expert themes for example shader themes. Lot's of bagginsbill expertise ...
Also on Poserpros you could find some advice but only for reading. Since that store is closed and integrated to DAZ the forum is dead but as a resource all threads are readable. Ok, you can also post there but there will no echo ...

Hi Bagginsbill,

Quote - - This is V4, right?
Are we shading a body suit that is like V4's stupid UV map? (I don't have this item and have never seen it)

Yes, it's V4 and in example her bodysuit from DAZ. I used that cause it has some nice morphs to give the pants and arm sleeve a bit flare not as tight as a pantyhose or stocking.
That bodysuit has a compltely different uvmap compared with V4 ... especially regarding the legs and arms. Legs are 4 pieces left/right as back and front. Back an front match exactly there the lace now is placed. So that makes the additional problem that the back and front side of the lace are on 2 different pieces in the map. Makes it more difficult to have them right matched.
As said I'm not such a great texturing specialist.

If my 2D skills would be better I might never have come to 3D ... buildings, cars, technical drawings as also trees or birds ... ok ... but something looking like human beings, even if aliens,  no, no,  better to have 3D to make 2D images ...

But back to theme, morkonan, who is building that moonbase jumper might use the shader on the V4 as a second skin.

So my idea was to create something that might be used on the bodysuit (or other clothing) with a bit transparency but on other hand could be used also as material for a second skin without transparency.
As far as the fabrics without that lace it works very well.

So thinking that the uv's might be different I needed something to set the correct position of the lace depending of the carrying figure. That was the base idea to combine a uvmap for that part with all around as procedural.

If you see my map (didn't know that I mentioned somethere to include the complete uvmap ) that black lines are round 20 pixels (back and front) in total and the underlying polygons are only 5-6 in total parallel along that lines. So there is not much volume to do something.

Quote - - So procedurally we can do it, but the UV axes don't line up. And there is a discontinuity in UV coordinates between upper thigh and lower thigh, as well as a huge abrupt change in UV density. Am I understanding the problems or off base?

Additional direct in the middle, e.g. exact the border of the uvmap, is a straight seam that can be morphed to be seen in the figure. That's cause it looks as if the fabrics isn't right fitting even if the uv is matching front and back. But thats not a problem, needs only to morphed zero to go straight.

Quote - -The side lace-up looks like it could be modeled as a separate conforming clothing item, just a strip up the side of the leg. It seems to stick up from the rest of the legging. You could model that with a good straight UV map and just apply a tiled image of the lace only.

Modeling as a conforming clothing is for sure a good idea and if it would be for Posette it would have been my first ... but V4, uh, why does she have so much morphs and magnets and other memory killers ...

Quote - - Or what about re-mapping the legs altogether first?

It should be a most simple solution, also I think remapping would not solve the problem with view to versatility of such a material.

Quote - - Never mind I find the BS-LegSeams.jpg file. So the UV seams are actually right there on the side of the leg? Wow that's doubly complicated.

Yeah, they are on position.

Be coaxed :thumbupboth:  Knowing your talents from several postings I would not have bothered you if it's not challenging ... 
I often had colleagues that in front of looking to a problem and trying to solve first asked for some training curses. Not my way ... training on the job is the better solution. What can be done should be tryed ... but, ok, than might be a point there it is better to ask a expert as to waste time and energy on a might be misleading way ... so here we are ...

Quote - - I have an idea about using a piece-wise linear function to track the seam, and use that to "straighten" and "expand" the UV map.

Hey, that sounds good ... though I have no idea how this might look in source ...

But this will also need a 2D map to find the correct position, right ?

See, I didn't see any solution to place a procedural shader on a specific position if it's not a mat zone as such. Ok, there is a function to get exact x,y,z-positions but only in viewspace. So I looked desparately for such function giving that point on a figure.

That fabrics material for example is derived from a stripy material I have created for stockings of the "Pippy Longstockings"-type (in german Ringelsöckchen). And there my first approach went over that x,y,z space component with the problem that the material didn't follow the clothing.

So then went over to that u-v-components but they don't give any chance for a precise positioning in the mat zone or did I overlook something.

Wow, that hair looks great ...

Though a bit sharp edged left and right forehead and not so sharp in the middle but it has never the less that cool touch. And it has that volume left and right which I missed a bit in ParisHair. Did you use the 5. color from the promo pictures? It works well ... a bit more specularity and touch silvry shine ... and done.

The makeup is fabulous ... even that dots should be more left and right on the height of the eyes and the eye shadows need a bit more of skyblue color.

But that eyes and brows are perfect. Looks like a small puppet ... :biggrin: a bit toonish, I'm normally more a friend of more natural face and body contours ... but otherhand it's a matter of the surrounding in the image. A toonish girl needs some toonish (styled) scenery. 
If coming together with such a realistic model like for example the moon mobile which is been reported as W.I.P. in the C4D-forum, it would not look as good.

Mouth ( to voluptous) and nose (to bumpy) is not so like my gusto ... might be I don't want to be remembered so much to my own nose ... :ohmy: ... but this is a absolute personal view and as ever "beauty lies in the eye of the beholder".

Cam and light is good for a quick render. For portraits 100mm is minimum needed, could also be more. Up to 150mm is absoluty no problem.

From the photographers point of view I would turn her head a bit ... that than looks not so as made for the next passport ... :biggrin:

For the left spotlight (with shadows right ?) you could change the shadow parameters:
Shadow blur radius to something between 2 (absolute minimum), better 8 to 12 like gusto. That will soften that extrem hard shadows.
The minBias parameter should be round 0.2. It's the difference how directly shadows start at the object. This seem's to be fine as far as I see.

And as last I would try to have the shadow light more as a only main light and the second with much much less brightness only to have also darker parts filled with structure. It seems as if the 2. light came from the top front (there is such a light place in the middle of the hair on top) with same intensity ... or am I mislead ?
But never the less in total it's a real cutie in the image ... and she has a lot of the Ellis touch ... I would say "well done", paramount ...

Looking forward for a complete image ... legs are important, aren't they ? :tongue1: