Sassi, thanks so much for the video and the normal channel idea. I will look into revising my workflow to include doing this technique in the normal tag after my current deadline is over. In the meantime, I think I will minimize the tearing by applying a fresnel layer to the bump channel to remove the bump when the surface is at extreme angle to the camera. It is a fix for now.
Thanks! And thanks for all of those short training videos you did way back when there was very little training online for C4d. I spent many hours watching them and learning!
-Randy