Normal Maping - Rocks

[R_K]

Hey Kedhrin -
I met a guy in a bar the other night that worked on Doom 3 (sounds like the beginning of a joke. :)). I believe the rocks were done in ZBrush and I know that other companies are using ZBrush in this way right now. The ability to combine normal maps with displacement maps (bump maps) in ZBrush would be particularly helpful.

Cheers,

Ryan

[EricChadwick]

I've found it pretty easy to create generic rock normal maps, purely in Photoshop. Comes out really well IMO.
1. Default fg/bg colors (D key).
2. Filter > Render > Clouds. Repeat until you get a pattern you like.
3. Sample on some cracks or painted forms, if you like.
4. Filter > nvTools > NormalMap. (get it here (http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nv_texture_tools.html)).
5. Adjust the Scale amount, using the 3D Preview to see how strong you want it to be.

Here's a super-simple example...
http://www.ericchadwick.com/examples/images/normalmap_rock.jpg

Actually modeling the rocks can be tough, since you need tight fractal detail to really sell it. But if you model the macro-size details, then sample on a tight-detail map like that one, you can get some good results.


Also, here's a LW tutorial for modeling a wall o' cracked blocks.
http://www.newtek.com/products/lightwave/tutorials/surface/texture_building/texture_building.html#BuildingTextureModels

[R_K]

I like this approach. You can then take the bump map into ZBrush and modify it to taste.

for example,

Select a Plane3D
Make it a polymesh; Tool: Make PolyMesh
Load the bump map; alpha: Load - navigate to bump map
Draw your polyMesh plane on the canvas
Divide it enough times to get the resolution you will need, but make sure to turn Smooth off; Tool: unclick Smt, Tool: Divide
Create a blank white texture; Texture: New (size doesn't matter in this case)
Turn Quick off
Set your display settings; Tool;Display Properties: Dsmooth = 1 and Es = 0
Preview the bump map; Tool: Displacement:Intensity = .2 or something like this.
Preview the displacement; Tool: Displacement: click Mode
Set your intensity to what seems appropriate; Tool: Displacement:Intensity
Apply your displacemet; Tool: Displacement:Apply Displacement
Done!
That will bake the displacement into your geometry and you can edit the shapes. Why be satisfied with a Photoshop solution when you can get the best of both worlds! :)

r

Edited: removed smiles...

[EricChadwick]

That's cool. Thanks.
(damn smilies!)

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