This is an area that I want to learn to master, and I figure that if you want to master something, you need to study what the masters do. Who produces unquestionable quality in this area?

At the moment, I'm thinking specifically for human figures, as it's character work I'm doing for the foreseeable future.

I've done a little bit of reading on the subject, but it's a bit abstract unless you can study something that was done really well. So I'd like to have a select handful of products that I can purchase and examine to get a sense of what I need to work on.

I would suggest getting a 3d painter like ZBrush, Bodypaint, 3dcoat etc. Bump mapping as such is not a complex thing and the problem most people face with it is in trying to relate greyscale colours on a texture with 'bumpiness' on your mesh. With a 3d painter though you just go and sculpt your wrinkles, skin folds, pimples etc and let the software worry about what the bump map should look like.

joshua&morris Trey character has good displacement and bump maps, as does jepes Sang character.
there is also the M4 Displacement map set available at Daz3D.

bootleggers also has good displacement maps for non-figure

The M4 Displacement Map which is specifically designed to enhance veins on a muscular physique is only available for DAZ Studio.  There are software and software plugins which are capable of creating bump and displacement maps.  If your original diffuse texture is well detailed, you will generate superior maps.  By the same token, finding high quality textures which can be integrated into your original work will also yield superior maps.  Shaderworks can create high quality maps and GIMP (freebie) feature plugins for getting the job done.

Of course, nothing stops anyone from applying the DAZ displacement maps in Poser's Advanced Material Room by hand. I add displacement, bump, and now normal maps in the Material Room all the time.

There are also several applications (?Crazy Bump) that can convert good bump/displacement maps into normal maps. I have had some fairly good success doing this.

[Edited to add]

Also, Texture Converter 2 (a DAZ  product) does a fairly good job of converting bump/displacement maps between its supported figures.

LMK

of course you can use M4's displacement maps in poser.

i use bump maps for small details like pores and dots. i use displacement maps for something bigger. like veins,muscles ,folds,....

To B3D: I've heard that Sarsa is a really excellent texture artist. I'm not qualified to judge, but I have a few products with her(?) textures and they look great. It might be worth taking a look at her(?) stores here and over at DAZ.

ice-boy, it's wasn't that you can't use them in Poser,  the problem was they are sold as D|S only with no Poser specific files to apply them that's all. 

i have them. i understand.

but even if there were files you would still need to go in the material room. just because daz3d thinks that the number 0,3 is good doesnt make it right. an artist always needs to tweak the settings to get the best results.

i think people should make he maps JPG. for poser we dont notice a big difference and it renders faster.

For bump maps I agree that .jpg is fine, but for really fine displacement, a 16bit .tif will be better than an 8 bit .jpg map.
With regards to the DAZ displacement maps you could save the 16bit .tif maps as 8bit .jpg files and see how much of a quality loss there is or if there is a significant render speed difference. That could be quite interesting to find out.
 

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Regarding the suggestions to use software to automagically create bump/displacement maps: I don't really believe in that solution. I suppose it would work okayish for pores, but Poser nodes do a sufficient simulation there procedurally. Try to work wrinkles in, though - these should not be in your colour map at all - so how the heck is the software to determine where you're going to have wrinkle lines? It just doesn't work. Moreover, a software automated solution is going to have problems with freckles etc. Those are not supposed to be displaced (much less indented). Etc.

I'd rather learn to do it right from someone who does it right.

Quote - Regarding the suggestions to use software to automagically create bump/displacement maps: I don't really believe in that solution. I suppose it would work okayish for pores, but Poser nodes do a sufficient simulation there procedurally. Try to work wrinkles in, though - these should not be in your colour map at all - so how the heck is the software to determine where you're going to have wrinkle lines? It just doesn't work. Moreover, a software automated solution is going to have problems with freckles etc. Those are not supposed to be displaced (much less indented). Etc.

That's not how a 3d painter works (there is nothing 'automagic' about it) You still paint your maps the way you do in photoshop, you just paint them directly on your 3d mesh. You can also do stuff like quickly wrap a photo texture onto a head, fix seams and paint accurate tattoos. Furthermore you dont need to mess with maps for bump mapping, you sculpt/engrave your skin details right there on the mesh itself. The painter then takes your sculpting and makes a bump map from it that you can use in poser or whatever.

eg this is ZBrush in action:

Five minute head texture

Ah, that's what you mean. A completely separate mapping process. (Someone mentioned Crazy Bump, and I got a couple things confused.)

I do have 3DCoat, but I don't use it. Too hard on resources, and not very easy to figure out. (I downloaded the ZBrush trial a few months back. Oy.)

Funny that folks were mentioning Sarsa and Morris in this thread... they both have textures in the starter bundle for the Freak, just released today.

Quote - joshua&morris Trey character has good displacement and bump maps, as does jepes Sang character.
there is also the M4 Displacement map set available at Daz3D.

bootleggers also has good displacement maps for non-figure

Just thought I would give credit where it is due - I was actually not involved in the Trey character by Morris.