CGTalk - normal maps on a mac

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JRH

09-07-2003, 09:50 PM

Hi,

I'm new at modelling/texturing working with wings 3d and Motionbuilder. I need a normal map of a texture to be able to generate a bump map in MB. I've been doing reading about ATI's normalmapper, ORB on this site. Given my lack of experience it's a little daunting although I think I understand the basics as it relates to adding a more realistic texture to a low poly model. I'm beginning to think though that maybe I'm dealing with two different issues here and was wondering if someone could help me. I see Nvidia has a plug-in for photoshop that will create a normal map. Since for MB I need a normal map of a texture that isn't necessarily currently on a model, is it really the Nvidia type of normal map generated in photoshop that I need. My more basic question is whether the Nvidia normal map creater is actually a different beast than ORB and normalmapper since photoshop is obviously not able to determine the slope of normals since it's not a 3d programme. My ultimate question--if I need a texture to be a normal map (xyz info in the rgb channels) what's the simplest way of doing this if I'm on mac?

Thanks in advance
JRH

EricChadwick

09-08-2003, 04:41 PM

Hmmm, I'm not a mac user, but there's a Cinema 4D tutorial that might help. You might be able to use some of the info to make your own shader?
http://members.shaw.ca/jimht03/normal2.html

About the nvidia tool, it only works off grayscale images, which are OK, but it does not compare with geometry-based normal maps. Although it does pretty well if you feed it a good-quality displacement-style height map. But then again, you need geometry to make that in the first place.

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