hey, primorge!  that's awesome! 

good to hear the book was worth it to someone.  :)

ohhhh, the geometry swapping thing.  man, i had forgotten about that!  but... does that have to be built into the character?  i was thinking more along the lines of sticking paws and tails on the human figures that are there.  what's their names?  steve?  dawn?  something... ;D  oh, l'homme/l'femme.  like that?

what about taking a partial figure (like a hand) and parenting it to the existing hand,  or forearm?  and then it just gloms on and you pose it from there?  too primitive a technique? ;D

guys, guys... i don't need Moar Programs (and just 'oh god no' on the python scripting ;D) .   i just needed to know what/which poser i needed to import and 'do the things' with.    you know, the joint parameters?  are those still a thing??  ;D

i want to make the body in blender, then bring it into poser to do the poser rigging with joint parameters, because that is so much better than doing it in blender.  like, in poser, i can pose the figure and move the rotation centers on the fly.  (i can still do that, right??  RIGHT?)  then i have a poser figure converter in blender.

for the head, i'll rig it in blender, using face bones.  i don't suppose poser figures use face bones now, but still use morphs.  right?  so i can pose the face in blender and export morph targets.

but tell me more about weight painted figures in poser?  some articles made it seem like Kind Of A Big Deal.

thanks, everyone, for your warm welcome(back)s!  :)

thanks, randym!

funny how upgrade from 12 is to 11... ;D

YES YES YES!!!

thank god!  or, well, thank YOU, J!!!

and ockham, too!

ah, okay.

hahhaah, les, you mean as in 'manually paint all the vertices in the material to be the same shade of bend percentage colour'?  yeahhhhhh, i tried that.  with the airbrushyness and no, say, 'bucket fill,' that didn't work so great....  :X

ah well, just checking.  :/

okay, i was looking at the reflection shader, and wondering if the red came from some reflection colour.

it isn't. 

i changed the 'background' reflection colour to hot pink, and the render came out exactly the same as using black, there.

so i don't know what it is.

okay, there's a buncha math functions that are making that dotty bit.  blended with that math function that seems to be 80% white.  blended with the fractal thing that makes the water drop shapes.

but here's the shaders.  i didn't unroll them all-- let me know if there's anything pertinent i missed.  below are the bump shader bits.

heyas; thanks for checking in, david.

   well... the SSS node was Skin 1. 
Skin 2 had the same result.
WholeMilk had some darker colour.
SkimMilk had some paler, rusty colour.

   still all discoloured. 

   i also tried taking out the colour for the HSV on the skin, and the base colour chip.  still blood drops.

ah, okay, i see it.

it appears to default to 'use render setting gamma.' 

and right, i'm not using gamma, and these bump nodes aren't using image maps, so.

   we're stumped?

   i'll poke snarly for some insight.

gamma = 2.2; it is not turned on, however.  i've never touched that setting.

gamma settings in bump/displacement?  uhmm.... no?  there's no gamma settings.  that i can find.  i'm using the ezskin2 'bump blend.'  it's blending... a blender of some math functions (noise), with another math function (looks like 'add 80% to 0%' and comes out white), blended with a fractal blend.

oh, did you think the bump/displacement map was an image?  i don't see any gamma settings anywhere on those, either.  sorry.

thanks, h...

   um, but i want to use the bump, instead of the displacement.  i did lower the displacement value.  i lowered it until the water drops facing forward had a decent dimensionality (and weren't, like, 2" spikes).  oh, you mean turn it down even lower?

ah, i have poser pro 2012, with the latest sr i think.  3?  3 something?  and measurement units?  hellifiknow, let me look...

  um... since i can't find it in preferences... default?  poser units, as far as i know; i've never had any reason to change it.

oh wait i found it!  meters.  sorry.

okay, hold the phone....

  i plugged the bump into the displacement node, but i didn't turn on displacement rendering on the side. 

i'm rendering the displacement now, and its making the edges of the figures jaggy.  sooooo.... um, i'd really rather use the bump setting instead of displacement, but not have it turn red.

any other ideas??

okay!

   i did the stupid backwards thing and switched the bump to displacement, and now it's fine.  well, on the arm.  we'll see how the full render actually goes...

go figure.

@marks

   yes, only the upward facing drops seem to be affected.   that's why i think it's some sort of reflection or... refraction, maybe?  i want to check these other tests before i muck with the camera. 

@moriador

   if i render without SSS, the drops are still discoloured, but more black instead of red.

@h:

   okay, rendered with just my main light (it's a point light), still red.

   well, the specular-only light only gave me a greyscale rendering.  it looks okay for what it is...?

  HDIBLVFXwhatever light only.  still red.

uh... what does that mean?  :/

okay, more tests...

moving the camera...

   well, the drops on the top of the arm there seem more white/clear, but i do see red edges towards the top/back.  and those vertical ones behind the hand, those still look like knife cuts.  :X

rendering with no displacement...

   well...  ah, there is no displacement.  it's a bump of 0.000127.

let me try turning off the reflection...

  no... still red.

i'm stumped.

i always start with blank scenes -- always have.  but i don't do projects like you have.

NUMBER ONE TIP:  once you get the pp12 pieces anchored where and how you want, for heaven's sake, turn OFF their ability to tear off.  i can't tell you how many times i've accidentally torn one out of place and had a devil of a time getting it back where it belonged.  (though i suppose the ui dots can help with that.  still.)

also, moo...  i'm using ezskin 2 (dunno if that is different), but to get the original diffuse colour chip into the alternate diffuse colour chip, i just click the alternate and sample the original.  is your ezskin actually overwriting the original diffuse chip??  (mine doesn't.)