CGTalk - Normal Mapping Help

Sigvatr

04-24-2008, 10:41 AM

Hey there,

I created a metal/scifi style texture today and I tried to normal map it using the NVIDIA photoshop filter. For some reason, it doesn't look so good, ie the nuts and bolts and other things seem to not look like they were intended to look like.

Is there a way to assign particular "heights" or something to a normal map manually?

I need some help :(

http://www.zombiesmash.com/ns1.jpg

http://www.zombiesmash.com/ns2.jpg

http://www.zombiesmash.com/ns3.jpg

GArriola83

04-25-2008, 05:26 PM

try making a b&w bump map off your texture and then use the nvidia nmap filter on that. that might get you a better result. but also crazybump is a good direction to go as well.

DeepFried

04-29-2008, 08:58 PM

its not recommended to use a texture with lighting/shadow info as your base to for Normal Map creation. Even if you did desaturate this image... the normal map would not look that great. Yes, crazy bump's sliders can get you close but you will comprimise image.

you need a proper height map. You can try painting it but it would be most accurate to bake it out of a 3d app with a high res model+ low res cage. (fairly easy since you have non-organic shapes) a good way to test wether or not you have a good candidate for a height map... you should apply it as a displacement map on a high poly plane - that will tell you right away wether or not it is gonna work.

since your image has alot of repeating "geometry" You should be able to create a proper height map for a small portion of it... then just repeat it where necessary.

hope that helps.

:d

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04-29-2008, 08:58 PM

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