I seem to have figured out the most difficult part. So while this isn't a comprehensive tutorial, it will give those who have shown an interest a good start. This is a fast method used to get a reasonable result but will by no means address all the problems you will encounter. I don't mean to sound condescending but I will assume that you are fairly new to Poser so these instructions may be a little irritating to those of you who know the interface. A standard displacement map (solid black and white)doesn't really provide a realistic impression, so the difficult part is getting a refined diplacement map (gradient) that will give the "impression" a realistic 3 dimensional look. Keep in mind this is still a WIP, so it will require some tweeking to get it right. This example uses a footprint as the desired effect, However, this principle can be applied to virtually any 3D object to create the illusion of an imprint. These instructions require Poser 6 (Poser 5 will also work with some slight differences in the interface) and any paint program that allows basic image editing (specifically light/contrast control and image inversion) In this example I will use Photoshop 7. The idea is to get an image of the foot that can be used as a gradient displacement map. In these examples I am useing DAZ's reduced resolution V3. Setting Up Load your figure into Poser. Rotate the figure 180 degrees (z axis) so the feet are facing straight up. Next, position your Main Camera directly above the feet facing down. Load a square plane from your Props/Primitives and rotate the square plane so that it is positioned between the camera and the figure.(See Figure1) Now slowly lower the square plane so that just the bottoms of the feet poke through the square plane. At this point you will need to make slight adjustments to the feet and toes in order to create the desired effect. From the main camera, you should be able to see the bottoms of the feet which will create the displacement map.(See Figure2) Adjust the Main camera so that the foot fills the screen (See Figure3) Creating Render/Displacement Map These next steps are crucial, so follow the steps carefully. Open up the Materials Room and under props select the square plane. Change the Diffuse and Specular Color to black. Next, select the V3 figure and under the material tab select the "skin feet" material. Change this material to white. Your Document Window in Poser should now look similar to Figure4. (Notice that in this example the Document Display Style is set to Smooth Shaded) This next step will have the biggest effect on how realistic your displacement map turns out. It is also a matter of trial and error, not to mention personal taste that will control the final product. In Figure4 you will notice that I have several lights set up. These lights are infinite lights and are only for lighting the figures and posing them. For this last step you will probably acheive the best results using 1 or 2 spotlights. But again that is only a suggestion since the idea here is to create a light and shadow effect on the part of the V3 figure that is showing through the square plane. For this reason you will want to position the lights so that they create a contrast of light and shadow that best mimics the shape you want to achieve for the displacemant. Figures 5 & 6 show the lighting placement I've used for this example. You will note that the lights are dimmed and do not shine directly on the bottom of the foot of the V3 figure. You are now ready to make a render. Switch back to the Main Camera view, set your render settings at a fairly high quality render since the better the render the more detailed your displacement map will be. Don't be afraid to use the highest setting since you have very low demand on your memory with this set up. In addition, select the Render Dimensions. In this box check "Render to exact resolution", uncheck constrain aspect ratio, set image resolution to 1000x1000 and select the highest resolution you can, in this case I have mine set to 1200.(Although admittedly this is overkill, I'm not worried about file size at this point) While this isn't crucial the idea is to get a very high quality render. Once you have these settings Render from the Main Camera view. When done export the rsulting image to whatever file you save your renders to. This render is the image we will use to create the gradient displacement map. My render straight from Poser 6 is displayed in Figure7 (This is not what I would consider optimal, but for the purposes of this simple tutorial it will do for now) For these final steps you will need to open your paint program (These instructions use Photoshop 7) Open the render you just made and select Image - Adjustments - Brightness/Contrast. Again, the settings you use here will all depend on personal taste so feel free to experiment with different settings, however, I have used a Brightness setting of plus five and a Contrast setting of minus sixty two. My render now looks like Figure8 Next, select Image - Adjustments - Invert. Your render should now look similar to Figure9. As a final adjustment I selected Image - Rotate Canvas - 180 (degrees) in order to apply it to a scene I created in Poser. (This can also be adjusted in the Material Room if you wish) You now have a gradient displacement map! To apply the map follow these directions. (I will assume that you are applying it to the ground plane in Poser. Open the Materials Room and select the Advanced tab, under the Objects drop down list select Props and then Ground. If you wish you can plug in a texture or just use the default. The 18th node from the top is the Displacement node. Right click the little plug icon to the right, select New Node - 2D Texture - Image Map. This will create an image map node. The first node is the Image_Source node, at this point it should say "None" to the right. Left Click on this word and it will open a standard Browser. Browse to the location where you saved your gradient displacement map and select this file. (Make sure the node is plugged in. It may also be a good idea to uncheck the Shadow_Catch_Only box) The amount of displacement you choose will depend on the strength of the map you made. The more contrast between light and dark, the less displacement you will need. This is going to depend on the way your render turns out as well as how much you adjust the render in Photoshop. A good place to start would be a displacement of 1.0 (you can go up or down from there as needed)you may also try negative values for different effects. In general a positive diplacement will result in lighter areas standing out while darker areas appear as depressed. Reverse that if you use a negative displacement value. At this point there are a few kinks that need to be worked out such as a realistic image resolution (after all, 1200 pixels/inch is a bit of overkill resulting in file sizes that are a bit too large) Image size and pixels/inch can be adjusted in Photoshop by selecting Image - Image Size and adjusting the Width, Height and Resolution to acheive more realistic file sizes. (Personally, I like an image map of 2000x2000 and a resolution of about 300 pixels/inch, this results in a file size of about 70KB) Also this will only give you one "footprint"; if you want a series of footprints you will need to clone or copy and paste the displacement map. Finally, scale will also be an issue. This can only be addressed in a limited way within the Material Room by adjusting the U scale and V scale as well as the U Offset and V Offset for the Displacement node. Let me know if you have any success with this method or any improvements/ideas to add.

Hi Cath, (Mec4D) I did try that and from the top that does look really good. Maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist, but I learned that viewing from different camera angles will affect the realism of the effect, which is why I was looking for other ways to approach this. I think displacement maps are somewhat limited, although I hadn't thought of blurring the image, that would probably solve the hard edges. What started out as simply playing is becoming a bit of an obession LOL. I'll keep playing with it and see what comes of it. Thanks for your responses.

Great! This is just what I needed to know. The original mesh is not mine but I'm going to go play around and see what I come up with. I only hope the original author will respond to my e-mail and find this thread. Thanks, L8tr

radym77, You were right, it renders fine with the P4 render engine. But does anyone know why firefly creates this problem? After all, isn't firefly supposed to be an upgrade? Not to bash CL or anything, but what are the differences in the two engines? Anybody know of any links or threads that would help?

To hell with the box art...how 'bout a render engine that works LOL

Wow! Thanks for all the tips. Anime Doll seems pretty close to what I'll need. (Not to mention she's based on MayaDoll with all the stuff available for her) I'm thinking either DAZ's Ultimate Pony Tail or Vicki's Changing Pony Tail with a little work might be useable for a hair prop. Still need to check out those links for a Sailor suit... Thanks :)

Thanks geep, Much obliged.

You know I've seen a lot of great renders on both sides of this issue. I guess it's all in what you like. Truth is opinions are like *ssholes, everybodies got one. I haven't worked much with Posette because I've always been fawning over V3. But now that I see some of the cool renders I think I'll tinker a little. But my preference for now still leans toward V3 simply because with the head and body morph packs you can get nearly anything you want from Vickie. Just my *sshole...Uhhh I mean opinion

If you want original bodies AND textures try dropping by ZetaStudios 3D. I have three of her(?) characters and they are awesome. I like the fact that they are modeled (morphed) after realistic looking people instead of looking like porn stars. As for V3 I have dual processors and 4 gig, I can handle just about anything. But I seriously agree with you on the file hierarchy. Its not so much their use of the exclamation symbol as it is the endless folders you have to scroll through to get to what you want. Even so, you pretty much use a set number of dials and learn fast enough where to find them so it's not too bad. Finally, if your not using a dial, just remove it. You can delete morph dials your not using to make the program run more efficiently. Don't need to do it much myself but there's a tut around here somewhere about it.

I don't currently sell anything in the marketplace, but I printed out a copy just in case that changes. Just had a discussion about this with one of the artists I write copy for. You need to be very careful about how you word things on a web site. Make sure you are up front about what it is you are selling and provide accurate descriptions of your products! Some of it may seem like common sense, but who ever bothers with that anymore? LOL Thanks for some good advice, hope you didn't have to learn all of it the hard way ;) Regards Lz

Just wanted to say thanks for everyone who responded. I now have everything I need for both Mor and Inj poses. The links the tutorials, everything I could ever need or want. Thanks big smile Lz2483

Moderate? I can't moderate myself, let alone a forum. ___________________________________________________________ If at first you don't succeed, FORCE IT! If it breaks, it needed fixin' anyways.

Ratteler, Thats helpful but what I need to know is how to MAKE a mor pose file for V2. Is it just a matter of editing the script from the cr2 with a text editor? If so what to edit and what to leave out? Know what I mean? Thats why I'm looking for tuts. I seem to have V3 covered, Karen1573's advice about the Injection Pose buider really panned out. But I'm still in the dark about mor pose files. Can't be all that different, can it {:( ---------------------------------------------------------- When all else fails, read the directions

Karen1573: Thanks the pose Builder at DAZ was just the thing I needed for V3. Now all I need is to figure out mor pose files. BTW the link was also helpful but I'm feeling kind of lazy, so I'll just let DAZ do the work ;) Thanks a bunch, see ya around, Lz

Just realized that I left out few details. First I ASSuME you are using a texture that includes bump maps(otherwise you probably wouldn't have this problem. So go to Materials room and make sure the bump is plugged into a node (either gradient bump or as described in previous post) Second, if you are using bumps then you probably want to have diplacement maps enabled. And finally try turning on raytracing also. Try that first, if you want to refine it and if you have a really good computer with lots of resources you can improve the look of most textures by turning up the value on the minimum shading rate (if your computer can handle pixel samples setting of 6 you could probably turn up the shading rate above 1 also.)