I'm not the first to point out the problem with the Hi-res body bump form DAZ. Its a fairly basic mistake that was overlooked in the creation of the bump map but the body hair is black (negative) and produces a virtual indent when rendered as in this image.

So, the solution is? That's what your title said.

Coppula eam se non posit acceptera jocularum.

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I'm obviously not able to redistribute the map I've created but here's how I altered the map in photoshop. ( I should say before I write this down for you that I discovered an easier way!_you can just move the bump slider in to the negative in the 'render_materials' dialogue!) still if you want a 'logical' map so that you don't have to rewite the MAT Pose and bump stregth files that came with the textures here's how I did it! Create a back up copy of your Michael3 body bump map Import the M3 body bump map in to PS Select just the body area ignoring hands and nails R_click in the selection and select 'layer via copy' (this creates a new layer with the contents of your selected area) In this layer 'image_adjust_invert' Then 'image_adjust_brightness &contrast' Move the brightness slider to 100% Save the resulting grey scale image . In Poser the new bump map will be applied to the torso,arms,legs etc And here's how the new bump map will look.

Too quick off the mark SaTherapy and we cross posted!!

aaarrrrggggghhhh typo (sorry SamTherapy) and attached file fell off in to the ether.

Hehe, thanks, noggin. I don't have M3 yet, but I'll be getting it next week. Maybe, just maybe, DAZ will have corrected this mistake. That said, if the bump map is detailed enough to show wrinkles and pores, won't your method invert those? If I'm reading right, the bump map should be pretty much as it is, except for the body hair, which should be inverted.

Coppula eam se non posit acceptera jocularum.

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Your absolutely right SamTherapy. I think the only place where this matters tho is the odd mole that DAZ have picked out on the bump map and (correctly) made these whitish (these invert to darker) and the perfectionist would probably want to make these lighter again. I don't think the pores notice too much (and would look like goose-bumps anyway!) I left the hands alone because they do have the hands bumped up correctly. Lucky owners of high end masking plug-ins might be able to just select out the body hair and invert this but I suspect because of anti-aliasing this might not look so good. However I'm no expert at these things....!

Hopefully the things that go the right way are on a separate layer of the master file from the inverted hair bumps and DAZ will be able to do an easy update.

How about putting a negative number in the bump channel? That should fix it. Or will it screw up other stuff? You can do that in Poser 4 and 5. Then no image manipulation would be needed. Keep in mind that you would most likely need to do the same for the head texture so you don't get a bumped seam at the neck. I don't have M3 to try it out. Lemme know if it works ok? All the best, Joe www.3-AXIS.com

Joe, yes you can do it that way (see post 3) BUT if you do then you'd have to re-construct the MAT files that come with M3 (which include the texture MATs but also the 3 bump setting MATs) otherwise each time you load the MAT's you'd get the incorrect 'factory' defaults. By changing the grey scale texture map nothing else needs changing. Lets hope DAZ do the leg work!

noggin: Good point. Thanks...

Best thing is not to use a bump map, i never do.. If the body texture is of a high enough quality, i dont see any point.. why would you want your textures to look overly bumpy? If you look at photo's of people, you cant see every little bump or pore on their skin... I never get this fascination with bump maps on a skin texture.. they only make renders slow, and serve little purpose, unless its for scaring or a raised tattoo.. ah well... Night Night

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Using Bump maps is interesting, when they show the hair or muscles or skin imperfections. It can be especially useful in high quality render engines like Cinema 4D. If they sell Bump Maps they should be correct IMHO. Inverting the bump map for the body should do it. It may be a bit more difficult with the bump map for the eye and the face. They did correct the eyebrow on the face map, so inverting won't help here. I wrote already 2 mails to Daz requesting help on this matter and no response til yet :-(.

Being that M3 came out on Wed night and I'm certain they were flooooded with emails, then closed for the weekend, I wouldn't expect you to have a response yet. Other companies I've emailed take a good MONTH to respond. Unless your email gets lost, expect a reply from Daz soon tho.

DAZ3D's Monday 9:00 - 10:50 Get into work, read Forums 10:50 - 11:00 Drive to bridge 11:00 - 15:00 SLCPD negotiators try to talk staff down from bridge sometime after 15:00, depending on skill of SLCPD, Dan or Steve post here.

OMG I hope those negotiators weren't needed_ its no big deal really! I'm certainly not one to get sniffy about common errors, having embarrased DAZ with a cranky CR2 for my swan model, all 'cos I was in a hurry to meet a self imposed deadline_ I know how easy it is to overlook the obvious. You can bet your bottom dollar those guys will be quietly getting on with solving the issue. I know not everyone is enamoured of the new M3 but I've got to say I love the photoreal quality of the texture and I think his physique (apart form the sl too angular jaw) is more believable than M2_ but then that's all about taste.

Attached Link: http://www.daz3d.com

I went to our production guys and had them explain the latest with this. This is their answer:

"Originally, we thought it best to create the body bump map as it was (with the body hair dark in the bump map) because of 2 reasons:

1.) Although inverting the entire map would have made the body hair look better, it also would have caused the pores and other skin depressions to appear inside out and the darker pores and skin depressions to stand up instead of appearing correctly as pores or holes.

2.) At the time, it seemed that the only way to make the body hair stand out without inverting the entire map would be to go in to the bump map and paint in matching white hairs for every chest, belly, and leg hair that was on the texture itself. To do this would have caused the maps to become much more expensive due to the increased labor hours.

Upon further reflection and customer feedback, we decided to take another look at the bump maps to see if we could improve them without inverting the entire map. Yesterday, after a meeting of minds, we found a solution that gave us the desired result without the extra hours of tedious hand painting. These updates to the bump maps allow the pores and other skin anomalies to sink properly into the figures skin, while the body hair is correctly raised up. The bump maps have all been modified and updates will be made available tomorrow for the Michael 3 Hi-Res and Standard-Res Textures (these updates can be found on each of those products' store pages)."

Hopefully that explains things for everyone. If not, just email us and we'll let walk you through it a bit.

Steve Kondris
DAZ Productions, Inc.

Here are some comparison images showing the difference in how the new versions of the Michael 3 bump maps work versus the old versions:

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Steve! Many thanks indeed for contributing to the thread. I stand corrected that this was a policy decision_ I can certainly see their point on the pores etc. I think they've come up with a good solution judging by the images you've posted. I'm off to go and download my updates! Best wishes Nigel

Thanks for your update. It really helps in making closeups better. I'm downloading...