Displacement Map question

[Amhras]

I'm trying to figure out how to apply a facial bump map as a displacement map for a character to get a bit more oomph out of it. I'm runnng LW 8.5 and I've been trying to play around with the "enable bump" button in the object's deformation tab, but it doesn't seem to do much, and I haven't been able to find much in the way of info on it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Surrealist.]

Displacements work on the subdivision surface.

After you Enable Bump and enter a Distance you have to use a Displacent Map the T button. Choose some kind of texture.

Or for something like a face you will likely want to use a Normal Displacement. For this you don't need to enable bump, but you need to use the Add Displacement drop down and choose Normal Displacement.

Double click on it and then use the requester where you will find a Texture button.

In 8.5 you have all of the texture options for layers so you can UV map a texture for veins wrinkles and so on to the face.

For more info and an example take a look here (http://www.newtek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74663).

[Nangleator]

After you Enable Bump and enter a Distance you have to use a Displacent Map the T button.
I thought once you added in a distance value, this displacement used the bump texture from your surfaces. Am I wrong?

[Surrealist.]

Actually, you are correct. It will work that way too. Based on the surface. Edit: In fact that is the only reason to enable bump. My error. In nodes you enable bump. So one thing to check is that it is an easy mistake is to be applying the bump map to the wrong surface. Other than that, make sure the size of the object and your distance proportions are such that it actually displaces a visible amount. And on that note, you have to set the render subpatch pretty high in order to see small details and if you have the distance set so that you are going to displace something relatively subtle like wrinkles it won't show much unless your display level is set high or until you render with a high level.

[Amhras]

Thanks! The normal maps render slow as h311 om my current machine. gonna have to wait for the new comp to arrive to really get into them.