Just made a first test render for a new texture I have made. The above was rendered in Poser 5 with the P4 render engine; it's not edited in any way. As you might see, it seems as if the 'mesh is coming through' the texture. The weird thing is: This is *not* on the texture map neither is it on the bump map (I have checked that, to make sure that I didn't have the seam guide show through the layers of skin). It's just, well, it's there, and I have no idea why. Also note that this doesn't show, for example, on the nose, chin and cheeks - just under the eyes, lips and over the right eyebrow. And, no, I didn't play with weird transparency / translucence channels either... I have saved the file now to see if tomorrow, when I have restarted the computer, it will render differently - but perhaps someone here has seen something like this before? I just find it, well... strange.

Could displacement be causing it to add some strange rows of shadows or something? I'd look over your displacement or bump settings again and see if there's something weird in there. Check to make sure you don't have any nodes connected in the wrong place.

Agghhhh, I have seen that before. (IM sent in the interests of not starting a wild goose-chase. Resolution of this issue to be posted here...)

Message edited on: 12/19/2004 21:09

Displacement maps were not used when I textured this; and the bump settings as well as the nodes are all fine. And what could possibly cast a shadow to Vicky's face (in a scene which is empty except of herself and the lights) that looks exactly like (and is exactly in the same place) the mesh of her own face? Interesting enough, the same portrait renders just fine when using the FireFly engine instead of the P4 engine. So I suspect this must have to do with the P4 render engine. Best wishes, Sabine

It's the bump map - set the value to something about 0.04 and it should be fine. This looks like it's set to 1.

I have had this happen before - although in different circumstances. It happened when I introduced small mesh changes that resulted in the mesh shadowing itself - and I was using the FF renderer. Have you tried rendering without shadows?

Message edited on: 12/20/2004 06:20

No, the Bumpmap is set to 0.15. If it came from the bumpmap, it would mean that this mesh is on the bumpmap - which isn't the case. It also renders just fine, without that mesh, if the FireFly engine is used... There's also something else: Looking at the picture, I can see that her face looks somewhat 'dirty' in the areas where the mesh is visible. But her skin isn't dirty in the texture. As I've said - it's weird.

I think the bump is too high. Her nose looks like crocodile skin. I usually set the bump to 0.01-0.03 for human skin.

Yep. (.01) for bumps. (.02) for displacement in FF.

No, the Bumpmap is set to 0.15. Sabine, die Einstellung ist viel zu hoch - 0.015 ist besser.

Doesn't it depend a little on how the contrasts are on the bumpmap? If you have every grayscale from black to white on your bumpmap or just something that floats around 50% gray makes a difference... ;-) Anyway... a) as I wrote in my first posting, that was the first rendering test in P5 with this texture. So... settings are subject to change... but... b) as we have by now found out, this still doesn't explain the existence of a nonexistent mesh displacement map in her face.... ;-) Pktchen: Test test test TEEEESSST... Renderrenderrenderrender... oh, wass'n das. DATT sieht abba komisch aus, datt schlepp ich ma' ins Forum... ... ja... ;-D

You can pull a wire from the texture directly down to bump and set it to 0.01 and get a fine effect without the added burden of a bumpmap. If you're going for a custom surface, then by all means make a custom bumpmap and attach it as a separate map. Don't forget to set displacement bounds (0.011)minimum or you'll get this effect again. Displacement is a nice feature to test in P5, too.

BTW, that's what she *should* look like (except of the strange eyebrows and lashes - transmap too small - and the fact that she still has no body texture. Rendered this in P5, this time with the FireFly, but without shadows.

So have you tried rendering with the P4 rendered WITHOUT shadows yet?