How do you generate/use normal maps?

[govinda]

Thomas of 3D Attack did a tutorial on this in a recent 3D Attack magazine:

http://www.3dattack.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=50&Itemid=2

[avgas]

Seen this? http://planetpixelemporium.com/tutorialpages/normal.html

[acmepixel]

I went to Cineversity to check if there are any tuts on Normal Mapping for Zbrush 3 - C4D integration and to my dismay found neither. So I have opened a Tutorial Request Poll. Everyone with membership head over there and vote. :thumbsup:

And for Casshern; loved that movie!
free tuts on ZB+C4d on Cineversity;
http://www.cineversity.com/tutorials/lesson.asp?tid=137
http://www.cineversity.com/tutorials/lesson.asp?tid=138
http://www.cineversity.com/tutorials/lesson.asp?tid=136
http://www.cineversity.com/tutorials/lesson.asp?tid=473
http://www.cineversity.com/tutorials/lesson.asp?tid=475
http://www.cineversity.com/tutorials/lesson.asp?tid=474
http://www.cineversity.com/tutorials/lesson.asp?tid=515
There's a nice tut by Dr. Sassi on Normal Map shader but it is not free.

maybe someone else can do better than me at finding some current tutorials on this. (besides Govinda's good catch).

--
oops, Avgas found one and posted before I hit the button.

[acmepixel]

http://www.pixologic.com/zclassroom/

check out the last 2, Maya and Max Normal Mapping pipeline tuts. Maya is similar to C4D once you get past the interface differences. but the principle is the same. Also covers Zmapper.

[Per-Anders]

Hi, please try to use more descriptive titles than "Please Help", I've renamed this thread so that it will be searchable and so that more people might check it to help you out.

[Tank_3D_Attack]

Thomas of 3D Attack did a tutorial on this in a recent 3D Attack magazine:

http://www.3dattack.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=50&Itemid=2


Actually I did two. One in the April issue and one earlier in the February issue :)

Thomas

[johankraus]

http://www.crazybump.com/

[casshern]

Hi, please try to use more descriptive titles than "Please Help", I've renamed this thread so that it will be searchable and so that more people might check it to help you out.

You're right, thanks for renaming :)

And thanks all of you guy's! Hopefully It'll finaly work.

[Katachi]

I simply use heightmaps and then use the normalmap shader from DPIT to convert. There are loads of ways.

[casshern]

Seen this? http://planetpixelemporium.com/tutorialpages/normal.html

Thanks avgas but I've seen that tutorial about a million times and I'm afraid its of no use to me.

Maybe I should be a little bit more specific about what I'm trying to do.

I've got a low poly character and a high poly character, both made in cinema 4D (the high poly was created from the same mesh as the low poly.)

Now I want to create a normal map from the high poly to put onto my low poly and I dont think I can do that using the technique shown in that tutorial.

I've read a few things about baking a displacment map and turning that into a normal map but again I cant find a tutorial that explains all the steps I need to take in order to do that.

Its getting incredibly frustrating and because I'm using Cinema nobody at my school can help me because nobody is familiar with it.

[Katachi]

Hmm, what is the problem then? Add a bake tag to the high poly mesh and then check "Normal Map" in the tag settings and click on "Bake". Swoop, it will generate a normal map out of the characers normal information.

Then load the normal map into normal channel.

At least that´s how I´d do it. :)

[casshern]

Hmm, what is the problem then? Add a bake tag to the high poly mesh and then check "Normal Map" in the tag settings and click on "Bake". Swoop, it will generate a normal map out of the characers normal information.

Then load the normal map into normal channel.

At least that´s how I´d do it. :)

Wah!?!...its that easy?

I'll try it right now ^^ many many thanks

Edit:
Okay I'm almost there :)

Still got a few problems, when I apply the normal map to my lowpoly object there are some black spots and the map is rotated a little bit, any idea what could cause this?

[Katachi]

Wah!?!...its that easy?

I'll try it right now ^^ many many thanks

Edit:
Okay I'm almost there :)

Still got a few problems, when I apply the normal map to my lowpoly object there are some black spots and the map is rotated a little bit, any idea what could cause this?

hmm, not sure about the rotation. Have you checked your UV data? Maybe it´s not optimal. Couldn´t think of anything else spontaneously (and haven´t worked that much with Nmaps yet :) ). Considering the black spots maybe it´s simply too strong? Did you try lowering the overall normal channel strength?

[casshern]

hmm, not sure about the rotation. Have you checked your UV data? Maybe it´s not optimal. Couldn´t think of anything else spontaneously (and haven´t worked that much with Nmaps yet :) ). Considering the black spots maybe it´s simply too strong? Did you try lowering the overall normal channel strength?

I just tried lowering the strenght but it doesnt get rid of the black spots, its like the normal map just doesnt project in those places.

I've tried loading the normal map in the colour channel and it seems some parts are just one big mess.

I've included a little picture of what it looks like at the moment.

[Srek]

Are you sure the UVs for the two models are identical?
It looks as if they simply don't match.
Cheers
Björn

[casshern]

Are you sure the UVs for the two models are identical?
It looks as if they simply don't match.
Cheers
Björn

Could be, I've probably didnt do everything the way I should have.

I'll try making another highpoly from the low without messing with UV's or anything.

Edit:

Well I'm still doing something wrong, I unwraped the low poly UV's and saved the file, then I started adding detaill and hypernurbing the thing.

Then I baked the normal map and I still have the exact same problems.

[Srek]

Depending on how you edited it that can be the reason. Did you change the mesh by adding/removing points or polys? Knife, extrude etc. will change the UVs and can lead to the observed effect while magnet, iron, move etc. don't change the topology and are usualy save to not change the UVs.
Cheers
Björn

[casshern]

Depending on how you edited it that can be the reason. Did you change the mesh by adding/removing points or polys? Knife, extrude etc. will change the UVs and can lead to the observed effect while magnet, iron, move etc. don't change the topology and are usualy save to not change the UVs.
Cheers
Björn

Ah, that'll be it.

When building the highpoly I drop the low into a hypernurb and start adding detail with extrudes and the like.

Is there any way for me to do those things and still make shure the UV's fit?
Do I need to go into UV edit to make it fit or is it just a lost cause?

[Srek]

If you use tools that modify the topology you will have to redo the UVs to match the old ones by hand.
I would very much recommend to only use tools that don't change the topology.
Cheers
Björn

[casshern]

If you use tools that modify the topology you will have to redo the UVs to match the old ones by hand.
I would very much recommend to only use tools that don't change the topology.
Cheers
Björn

Yeah, I was afraid of that.

Many thanks for your help Srek!

[Caravaggio]

If you're still reading then my 2c would be to forget about doing this inside c4d. It'd be nice, but I've looked high and low and can't find a way of doing it (I wish I had a penny for every time that 2d/4d light tutorial came up).
You shouldn't have to worry about the high poly UV map these days, it takes too much time, just make sure the low poly uv is good. Export both the low and high polys as OBJ files and then use this program to create a normal map...

http://www.xnormal.net/

...it's fast and fairly easy. Though when you import the normal map back into a C4d material you'll have to check the box to flip the green channel.

[chris_b]

Yes.... baking Normals from a hi-poly mesh back into the UVs of a low-poly proxy is a
more complex process that involves tracing rays from one mesh to the other. XNormal is
great, but it would be cool to do this in C4D directly. There was a plugin a while back called
'SimpleMaker' that had a tool in it called Mr.Pepper that could do this... I remember trying it
a couple years ago and it was too slow with dense meshes to be useful in production.
Anyhow, here's the link:

http://www.cinemax4d.de/simplemakerpro/home_us.html

http://www.cinemax4d.de/simplemakerpro/mrpepper.html

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