heyas;

   been working on some tattoos, based on mr X's tutorial (http://www.superheroinecentral.com/mrx/xpage/decaltutorial/decaltutorial.htm)  and bagginsbill's info on the tattoo thread (which i would get you the link for, if i only knew where the dip my 'subscribed' threads were hidden...!??!?!)

   aright, to stick a tattoo 'decal' onto a skin in the poser shader room (instead of painting it on the texture map), you blend the tattoo node with the skin texture node.  you use a mask of the tattoo, with the tattoo in white and the negative space in black.

   well... my tattoos are black on white.  instead of creating a whole new texture that is inverted, i figured, hey, why not use the same texture, but use a math node to invert it?  like... duh??

   so... i go to math nodes... i don't see no 'invert'?  'multiply by -1'?  anything?  how can i invert a black/white image? 

i'm using poser pro 2012.

actually if your tatoos have a white background you can use color math multiply vs making a mask

Bill

to invert a b/w img, use the subtract node.  e.g. 1 - 0 (black) = 1 (white), whereas 1 - 1 (white) = 0 (black).

if i remember correctly its a math subtract with both values set to 1 & your image pluged into value 2

And if the tattoo is just a color mask like that, whether black on white or inverted, just plug it into a blender node. Now you have two channels to play with - one is ordinary skin, one is your tat'd skin.

Look at this example where I used this technique to put a corset on V4.
But the same thing works for a tattoo.

The corset/tattoo is in Image_Map_9.
The corset is colored and the background is true White.

This goes to math_Functions_2 to make a inverted B&W map that I used in Bump and Displacement.

It also goes to the Blender_2 to get mixed with the origional figures skin map.
The Blending is controlled by Math_Functions_3
All that is BLACK on this map will get the origional figure skin.
All that is NOT BLACK will get the corset color.

From Alt_Specular, I go to a Blinn_2 to get the corset to shine. Reflectivity again controlled by the Math_Functions_3 node

Study the screengrab, and you can clearly see what every node does.

PS; This is an older setup.
The texture filtering should be set at Crisp for PP2012.

in short.
The Blender puts the corset on the figure skin controlled by the math-Functions_2 node.

Or the tattoo in your case.

Happy Posering
Tony

PS; The corsets have different colors because you can play with the Input_2 color in the Blender :-) :-) :-)

ha-ha-ha-; that is dressing up figures with ZERO Poly's...

ha-ha-ha-

Can be done this way for all bodythight clothing.

Quote - ... bagginsbill's info on the tattoo thread (which i would get you the link for, if i only knew where the dip my 'subscribed' threads were hidden...!??!?!)

Is this the thread you were thinking of?

BB on tattoos ("best method for tattoos in Photoshop")

les, yes; that's the thread!

i have subscribed to that thread (probably twice).  my problem is, i can't find anywhere in my profile/control panel where my subscribed threads are stored.  so i can find them again.

vilters, thank you for the pic!

and everyone else with the subtraction math.

as for mutliplying, i really wanted to use a mask method to try different blending methods (blend, multiply, whatever) to get a better tattoo.  if possible.

hang on a sec... where is the 'texture filtering' setting in 2012?  NM! i found it!!  its on the image map window shade thingy-doodle settings.

okay, now...  when i use the 'add subsurface scattering' wacro... it uses the blend like the regular image map, to plug it into the alternate diffuse and yadda yadda.  but.  unlike when i hit that wacro with a plain texture on it, the result comes out lighter than the original skintone.

   any help on that?  should i post my shader thingies?

also, vilters... can you post your setup as a tutorial maybe?

NEW QUESTION:

so... let's say i have two (or more) tattoos/decals i want to stick on one skin.  how do i do that?  do i have to make them all combine into one inverted mask and use one blend with the skin?  or would it be possible for me to, say, make one very fresh and dark, and one very light and faded?

Each blender can blend another tattoo (or decal or whatever) against what you already blended up to that point.

You chain them together. You can have 100 tattoos each with a different color.

okay, i ran into a problem...

   i blended one tattoo with the skin, and another tattoo with the skin.  when i went to blend those two together at 0.5, they each washed out each other's tattoo...!  the skin part of each blend is 'covering' the tattoo part of the other blend.  you know?

how do i do this right?  btw, each tattoo is blending with the skin in a different manner, at a different strength.  one is in colour, the other is plain single colour ink.

Your blending should be 1, anything less will washout the image.

all right...

  i used colour math, and i put the colour tattoo in the top, and the black (dark brown) ink tattoo in the bottom, white both chips, and i used MIN mode.  which looks really good!  because the dark ink goes on but the skin tone doesn't darken.

   BUT!  now i see that the colour in my colour tattoo is washed out.  oh... let me try to strengthen the colour before that blend...  well the dark outline is getting darker, but the faded colours are not becoming more saturated to offset the effect of the desaturation... and now the darks are too black.

meh.

h:

putting the blend at 1 makes it all the second image, and none of the first image.

i thought that number was the blend balance from 0 (all top) to 1 (all bottom).  and .5 was 50/50.

I'm not really much of node-wizard myself ... more like the exact opposite haha .. but well, I guess that you would connect the Blender nodes Input_1 with the next Blender node, and so on. Input_2 of each Blender node then will receive the Image map, you want to blend in. The Blending value is 1, with an attached mask image of the tattoo/decal.

Pretty basic, how I'd star this experiment.

Perhaps instead of a mask, a math function will/could work, too.

... speaking of them (math functions), I wonder what funky stuff all the different math functions can do, when plugged into the Blending value of the Blender node.

There's still so much more to find out, still ... lol