I've been sidetracked for some time on another project (*Jacaranda: the Lost Photos*, a book), but have finally returned to my wrinkled stocking project. Here's a picture: a real live woman (my wife, actually, Jacqueline) with wrinkled stockings, and the V4 creature, using a version of Baggenbill's procedural. I think I'm getting somewhere. I've made a video of this creature, crawling in her stockings--

http://evidenceofalostcity.com

--and it will probably be the opening scene of my movie. The next bit will be a mix of live (using blue screens) and animation. And for the next bit--I want the V4 woman walking, and as she walks, the wrinkles increase and decrease. I understand that some of the nodes in the Material Room can be animated, so I will start experimenting with that. Can the displacement effect be thus animated? The displacement value altered over time? And is there some clever way to make the increase/decrease different for each leg? I mean, as the left leg steps forward, it wrinkles more while the right leg wrinkles less?

I'm not after reality, exactly, I don't think anyone will mistake one of these animated figures for a real person, but I want areas of verisimilitude--little complex touches of reality, like the wrinkling of the stockings, or wind-blown hair or dress, which is something else I want to start esperimenting with....

Also: I am using PPro 2010. Do PP2012 or PP2014 offer better animation control?

Quote - Can the displacement effect be thus animated? The displacement value altered over time?

Any node parameter can be animated. Click the key next to it and then "Animated" to turn on key framing of that parameter.

Quote - And is there some clever way to make the increase/decrease different for each leg?

Probably the simplest is to use the Group tool to give one leg its own material zone. You would still put the same shader there, but now you have a separate instance of the displacement which you can animate on its own.

Muchas gracias! I'll be giving the Group tool a try! I never thought of that...