Actually on another forum (3dxtract) someone was smart enough to set 1 to the vertical brick count. The black I/we are seeing is the groove of the first brick layer seam (grout). I feel dumb. :P Mystery solved in my opinion. However with 1 for the vertical you get a seam that runs the length of the object. Not what I want so it would appear brick isn't an option for me to use in this case. However the formula case for bump mapping still doesn't look proper. Maybe that is something Eovia could look at. Thanks all!