I have been modeling now for a couple of years do understand the application of bump maps in most other 3D programs quite well. The issue as of late is getting the best results from poser and in some cases my bumps fall short of what I expect. Perhaps its due to the lack of understanding what takes place in the conversion process or is their something I could do in preparing the maps before hand which will better my results. Is it better to just bring in a colored or grayscale positive image? I gather poser must reverse it to a negative or inverted image. The question is does Poser bring up or lower the contrast of the map, etc.? these are I would appreciate any one who can point out the finer details, or some special territorials which can give me a better understanding of how poser treats or how to prepare my images before hand.

Poser uses the bump map to make light and dark patterns in the surface like the bumps would havecaused if they were physically on the surface.

Thank you Anthony for your response, I do have an understanding on the purpose of bump maps and their use. To make myself clear - the information I am seeking is much more specific on how the application treats the image on import before being placed on the model, i.e. does poser change the contrast - the difference in grey scale levels or curves. In one 3D app I use, I create a positive grayscale image (texture) brighten - turn up the contrast and then blur and invert the texture map then place on the model. These are some of the more specific technical responses I am looking for at this time.

Attached Link: http://www.soft-rabbit.com/

Grayscale templates are simply used as they are (no change of contrast), colour templates are converted to grayscale by using the "value" - this gives quite unexpected results, because you typically use "luminance" when you convert from RGB to Grayscale in your image editors. For example, bright red, green, blue are treated exactly like white. In other words, if you first convert to Grayscale yourself, Poser will create/use a different bumpmap as if you directly use the colour version. If you are on Mac, you can get my "SpeedBump" filter package for GraphicConverter which offers a couple of tools - one of it is a Colour -> Gray conversion the way how Poser "sees" colours. Sorry, no PC version (yet)...

Thank you Martin for your expertise. The questions now that I am asking, perhaps its better to only to create and import gray scale images. Knowing what the image looks like before hand I would find it more controllable. Do you thing this would give me the best results? The second question is what range in my grayscale levels work the best, should the images lean towards the black or white of the gray scale? Thanks Dale

It definitely is best to use Grayscale, because the colours are not used in a "natural" way for the human eye. Poser only uses the maximum contrast of your template (e.g. the difference between the darkest and the brightest spot), so it doesn't matter at all if you go from black to middle gray, or from middle gray to white (for example). If you want maximum bumps, always use both 100% black and white spots as absolute peaks in the template - if you want smaller bumps, then it doesn't matter if you start on black, white or any gray (as long as the starting level still allows for the full range in both directions that you want to achieve).

Thank you Martin for your time and help Dale MacMullin