Since I started receiving emails of forum posts, I've become amazed at the knowledge floating around out there--most of it well over my head. But I'm learning...

Meanwhile, a question. I'm mostly doing videos with Poser 2010 Pro. A lot involve V4 figures wearing stockings, which seem to all be conforming. As the characters twist and turn, however, I'm constantly getting poke-throughs. These are time consuming to fix, even imperfectly. I'm wondering if there is a more elegant solution than constantly spinning dials--

I've heard of magnetizing clothes. Would this make a difference?

How about dynamic stockings? This would involved an extra step in the cloth room, but could be worth it.

And why not "paint" the stockings onto the leg texture? I've actually started looking into this, uploading the V4 limbs image map, and the mesh, into Photoshop. I see there are complications, with lines curling all over the place. It will be difficult to get an even top to the stocking, for instance, and perhaps even more difficult to add things like seams and heel treatments and realistic wrinkles. But surely this is possible.

And if the dynamic stockings, and the painted textures, can be effectively done, why dont I see them in the marketplace? Do these things exist? Where? It would save me a lot of time (tho I find the work fascinating) if I could buy the textures, for instance, already done. At least I could learn how others have done it, so I could do my own versions.

Meanwhile...I will continue stumbling around in Photoshop to see what I can accomplish.....

A procedural nylon shader can be easily added to the V4 texture ...

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2719482&page=1

If you need to show the toes, there is a sock toe figure at ShareCG.  For nylon stockings set the transparency to about 55% and apply the v4 texture and stocking shader to the toe figure...

http://www.sharecg.com/v/57117/browse/11/Poser/V4SockToes-Conforming-Figure-for-V4

BB created procedural stockings some time back and I would need to go way back to find the exact link.  Perhaps someone might have that readily available.  It does mean renaming some material zones for V4, but the results are outstanding.

Thanks, WandW. Bagginsbill's work looks amazing. (And this is what you refer to, hborre?) But it seems to be for the whole leg, right? I want actual stockings, with their darker tops mid-thigh, and perhaps a seam down the back, heel treatment, wrinkles, too. Maybe I can apply this to the leg, and then add some additional texture to the top? BB's ability to change denier and color is lovely. Well, I shall proceed experimenting....

Some shoes include conforming stocking tops; Idler168's pumps for one...

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/high-heel-pumps-for-v4/52847

If you want to try dynamic stockings, svdl's free Office Outfit has a pair...

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=38078

You can apply the BB shader to the stockings and make them partially transparent like the sock toes....

OK--I see svdl's Office Outfit--I'll try that too...

I've started the bb nylon shader--gone thru the first few steps, made the "Stockings" group. But now he says simply, "OK so load my shader." I see we are in the Materials Room. But how do I load his shader? I've put it in the library/materials/procedurals folder as an mt5 file. I can create a new node--there are a bunch of nodes listed, Math, Lighting, etc--but I dont see any Load Shader listing. How do I load the shader? I suppose this is such a primitive question that it isnt worth mentioning, except for primitive users like me.  Help!

Once in the material room, click on the Material icon of the library. Simply double click on BB's shader to load the nodes into the material room.

Ah, thank you....

I pretty much only use dynamic clothes.  I haven't made my own stockings (yet), but I had no problem at all converting Lady Littlefox's Infamous/Scandalous stockings to dynamic.  Just make sure they have good static and dynamic friction and that your figure is scaled down (say 90% overall and 75% on z) compared to the end state.  Oh, and that the stockings settings give it good stretch.  The default 50 is OK, but you can take it down further if it starts giving you problems.

Here's an example of me using dynamic stockings.  You can see how nicely they act over the toes.

Hi,

if you want to avoid poke-throughs, but need a separate material layer, not just "2nd skin", the following trick might be useful:

Create a duplicate of your figure, and set the material to which ever semi-transparent you want.  Apply a small constant amount to "displacement", for example 0.1 cm.

Then conform the duplicate figure to your original figure. Hide body parts you don't need in order to reduce the number of vertices required for the rendering process.

OK, magnets could be an issue, but unless you use V4, not a big problem.

I did some tests with that method, for some mesh texture (kind of fishnet), but I cannot find images at the moment. If I find them, I'll post some later today.

Best regards,

   Michael

Thanks, all, for the considerable information. I continue experimenting.

I've made a first stocking-leg texture, and uploaded a page with the character--Lin Yang, a V4 figure--using the stockings. It still clearly needs work, and doesnt show well in close-ups. It lacks that sleek shine that real stockings have, and which BB's shader creates. Anyway it's here if you want to  this first attempt--

http://evidenceofalostcity.com/evidencecharacters/wraiths/linyang.html

--one of the 'Wraiths' in my movie. I will continue experimenting. I'll be adding more details, like heel treatment, wrinkles. And I will see if I can use BB's textures in some way here. I am intrigued by Michael314's use of a limb with its own texture, conformed to the figure. I'm going to have a busy couple weeks,  and I havent even gotten to the dynamic stockings yet.

Thanks again for all the suggestions. If I create something worth looking at, I'll post a link.........Don