Curious if anyone has tried Reality 4 w/ P12? I still use Reality exclusively in P11 thanks to Snarly's script, and not interested in moving on just yet.

This is something I've also struggled with monumentally! I ended up regrouping the lower most row of poly's on the abdomen group for the waistband. I also did an overlay for the hip and waistband much like grichter did, but still not totally satisfied with the results.

My overlay used the same concept as Anthanasius' post in this thread with good results. I'm still puzzled how the stocking top looked so straight in Anthanasius' render given the leg/hip junction being not very straight - but I digress.

Ultimately, I'd just like to have the waistband a little higher up on the abdomen just below the umbilicus. That unfortunately has been my undoing to date.

Still I think 'bill's method is about as good as it gets. I liked the simplicity of fabiana's recent product Essentials Sheers. But trying to do a pantyhose or even a stocking top overlay with the node structure in Essentials Sheers has not worked out well for me.

Still open to suggestions myself....

Paul

Quote - I had a little trouble last night. FFRender kept crashing on me. I discovered two things I'd like to pass on. I checked the Poser TextureCache (found in Documents and Settings/Local Settings/Temp) and it was crammed full with 1.7 gigs of files going back to about the last 4 images I had rendered. I cleaned this cache out manually. Number 2, I don't think P8 likes a bucket size of 16. I put my bucket size back up to 32. After doing both things, I was rendering fine again. This may not be a problem for people with more RAM. My Toshiba Satellite only has 512 megs of RAM, something I need to remedy but money is tight right now.

That's interesting - I'm having FF render issues as well! I discovered three folders in the User/AppData/Local/Temp/Poser/8.0 folder (Vista 32 bit) and found 1.1 Gb in the texture cache, 30Mb in an "undo cache", and 20Mb or so in a FFrender cache.  Even more interesting is A SECOND PoserTextureCache that contained another 1.1Gb of temporary files - the sames ones I found in the Poser/8.0 subfolder.  I manually cleared all folders - will see if the errors persist.

I also checked my PoserPro folder for cache files - both were totally empty.

Thanks for this thread - else I probably would have shelved P8 yet again.

Hope this helps...

Paul

I added a noise node via gradient bump and set to 0.35.  Thought it might add some extra life to the nylon...not sure it made much difference.  

Anyway, thanks again bagginsbill - it appears my quest for the ideal stocking texture may at last be at an end!

Paul

Hosiery (esp pantyhose) in Poser has stumped me for years -  but bagginsbill's' tutorial is far and away the best I've seen to date!  I developed a .psd for a pantyhose top and waistband about a year ago as I struggled with ph-2nd skins (attached img). It seemed to me this might combine well with bagginsbill's trick - and sure enough it did! 

This is a simple .psd overlay of the waistband and gusset over the the V4 - Anais texture. I've used this on many characters by just matching the pixel dimensions of the overlay to the character. The waistband extends into the abdomen region, thus allowing for the entire hip to be designated as a material zone as in bagginsbill's tutorial. 

The final render is cooking right now...will post as soon as it's done.

Thanks, bagginsbill - you solved in an evening what has bedeviled me for years!!!!!

Paul

Here's a render using the stocking magic morph.  I think it's great for opaque hosiery, but not so good for sheers.