Mastering Bump Maps for Curious Labs Poser® and Corel Bryce® Part 4 [Return to the Part 3] Now comes the interesting part... Select the "Grid" object (the object with the UV Map lines) and change the Opacity value to around 33%. I find this Opacity percentage will allow you to see where the bump details must be added and yet not obscure too much detail. You can always hide the grid object temporarily by clicking on the small "eye" icon in the Object Docker. With the Background highlighted in the Objects Docker choose a large brush and choose a 50% gray as the main colour. This will be the foundation for the bump map. Remember that a mid-gray is the middle ground for the bump mapping. Lighter tones will be rendered as high spots on the model and darker tones will render as the deeper folds and hollows. Cover all the areas within the UV template. You can go over the lines a bit. Anything outside the lines will not be included in the bump map. Be careful however not to cover too much as you could lose your reference points.             With this done, you are ready to begin creating the bump details. Firstly details such as ribbing and textile patterns can be worked in. This must be done before the folds. This is pretty much a logical thing to do because folds can be found inside the patterns on the textiles of clothes. In this part of the tutorial you will be applying a strip of ribbing running down the sides of the suits and on the shoulders and arms. 1.Work out how the ribbing should look, and create a basic pattern using white lines and curves on a mid-grey background. Don't worry if it doesn't turn out right at first. Here's how the basic pattern should look and how it renders if you apply it to a flat square surface as a bump map.           With the ribbing detail finished you can now cut out and scale the basic pattern, and apply it to the UV map in the sections were you want it. Here's how to do it... 2. It is best to draw the pattern in a New window (Ctrl-N) or on the original UV Map where there is a little bit of doodling space. 3. Use the Rectangle Mask Tool to mask out a block containing the basic pattern.                 4. Copy (Ctrl-C) this masked area to the Clipboard and use the Paste... As New Object. (Ctrl-V) to paste the object repeatedly into the areas on the of the UV Map.                         5. As you add objects, you will notice the object appear in the Object Docker , (if it is maximised) at the right edge of your Corel PhotoPaint 9 window. If the pattern sections that you paste start to appear above the reference grid that you set up in the previous section, then you will have to "re-order" the objects to put the "grid" object at the top of the list.                 6. If the grid object is lying at the bottom of the list, click on it and drag it to the top of the list to make it sit in front of the other objects. You can see the results of reordering below.         Of course, another way of doing this is to select the grid object in the image itself and use the Ctrl-Page Up and Shift-Page-Up key combination to move the object through different layers. (Don't forget to click again on the background layer to continue to edit it afterwards.) 7. Once you have pasted all the objects and positioned them (using the arrow keys) you are now ready to "merge" them with the background. Again save the file at crucial points as it is a real hassle starting from scratch all the time should you make a mistake. 8. Use your mouse to highlight all the small pattern objects by drawing a marquee around them. (Make sure the "arrow" or Select Tool is selected to do this.) Another way is to use the Shift or Ctrl key when selecting all the objects in the Object Docker. DON'T highlight the grid object you don't want to merge that. (use the Ctrl Key to remove it from the selection as shown above) It is just a reference for now. 9. Now with all the pattern pieces highlighted press Ctrl and the Down Arrow on your keyboard's cursor pad to merge the objects into the background. (the same command is found in the Objects menu) Corel 8 users would use the small red icon in the Object Docker window to merge the objects with the background, or select the Objects...Combine...Combine object(s) with Background menu item.
	I am sure you are dead keen to see how it is turning out, aren't you? The best way to satisfy your curiosity is to now Import your new bump map into Poser, but you have some work to do first. 1. Save the file as it is in Corel PhotoPaint native CPT format to maintain all the layers. Once saved, right-click on the "Grid object" on the Object Docker. Choose Delete Selected Object from the popup menu that appears The grid will disappear and you will be left with the following result: 2. Now save the file as an ordinary Windows BMP file, go to Poser (you might still have Poser running) and import the picture as a texture map. Leave the bump map in Poser alone for now. You just want to see how the texture is looking. Note: If you really want to see the bumpmap in action in Poser then you will need to load it as a bumpmap. Allow Poser to create a BUM file and set your bump height to 100% in the texture settings. (Poser and Bryce differ tremendously in their scaling of bump maps. Poser rarely shows bump details below 75%, whereas any bump map set more than 15-20% in Bryce's Materials Editor will render the bump with extreme vertical distortion which is not very desirable!) Is your hard work starting to look something like this?                         3. Return to Corel PhotoPaint and Load your picture that was saved as a Corel PhotoPaint CPT file with all the layers and objects in place. You can continue to add details like seams and surface detail to the bump map. Always use a brush with the anti-aliasing on or with a soft edge. If you draw a hard line with visible "jaggies" or pixelation, the detail will look blocky and unnatural. Remember clothing in general is soft and pliant.
	This concludes the 4th part of this tutorial. Are you ready for the next part? [Return to the beginning] [Next part]