Attached Link: P4 Tron Texturing

I have found an interesting way to do this in P4, but I doubt it works in PPP or P5 because of the changes to not use BUM files.

That's neat, _dodger. I'll have to try that. As far as I know, Pro Pack handles bump mapping in the same way as P4. The BUM conversion is simply done on-the-fly, rather than saved to the hard drive. And it'll still use BUM maps if they are provided. In Poser 5, you can apply a "texture mask" to the Ambient channel, so that only specific parts of the material glow.

There's a Tron warrior texture for Mike in Freestuff

Cool -- though will P5 still use BUM files if asked to? (I would hope so, because of all the tings that could be frustrating when you have a BUM but not the original bumpmap it was made from). I'm just curious, because a mapped ambiency wouldn't work quite the same. If you look close at the movie Tron, you'll see that the 'glowing' parts are actually flipped to negative and coloured, while the rest is filmed in black and white and hand-coloured where necessary. This is really obvious in the scene where they are drinking the 'water' that glows, after they escape on the lightcycles. Hmm. I should make a lightcycle... but I digress. It's also possible to do ambience mapping in P4, though it takes a little more work and a modelling program of some sort. Simply make a base conformer as per Bloodsong's tutorial (or, if you're doing it to a conformer, just copy the CR2 over). Do not remove the MTs if you make a BC, especially if the figure has ERC JCMs. The new geometry will fit the MTs. Then make a copy of the geometry with the slightest amount of inflation (Push modifier in 3DSMax) -- just enough to make the whole thing fit just over the surface of the skin or whatever. Point the base conformer/CR2 at that geometry and conform it to the figure. Set it's ambience to whatever you want and make a transmap for it. Viola, transmapped ambience conforming to the surface.

praxis: dooes it use blue on the BUM files, though? This doens't have to be for Tron, it will work for anything you want to reflect light in a particularly unnatural way. I'm going to experiment with using it on a transparent object to see if I can't get diamondlike specular (the real term specular, not the 3D jargon specular) effects. I may also play around with the possibility of getting somethig that looks like real snakeskin opalescence if I can ever get my photographer to take pictures of the snakes for the Python textures I have projected. (*sigh, I started that a month ago and haven't gotten any time from him -- noggin even gave me a snake so I could do it*) This would also work really well for the lettering on the One Ring, or any runes inscribed on a magic item of any sort. The idea is that by using a colour outside of the gamut that a BUM expects, it forces P4 to render it reflecting light at an impossible angle, i.e. light at >90 degrees to the camera is reflected *around* the surface and back at the camera, not not like it's transparent -- not through, but around. Almost like refraction, but not quite.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/freestuff.ez?Form.Contrib=JHoagland&Topsectionid=0

And while you're working on making your own textures, be sure to check out my Tron (for Mike) and Video Warrior (for Mike) packs. They include textures, MAT poses, and "disc" props. And, yes, they're both FREE! --John

Do you mind if I use your textures to make magic-BUMs and give them away free too?