Normal Mapping and Maya Question

#1

I have a question about creating Normal Maps and using them in Maya. Typically when creating game art in Maya- I share the UV space as much as possible… in other words- I overlap the UV to best use the space. This is of course a common old school technique. Now I’m creating Normal Maps- but I can’t share the texture space- I must “flip” the UVs, or the normal appears wrong on the opposite side- this means my texute maps fill up twice as fast 9in other words, a huge resolution loss). Is there a fix for this? I’ve been told there is for Max- so I’m hoping Maya too. Please help if you can.

Craig

#2

Craig I’ve struggled with this as well. I’d love to find a solution for this. If you’re putting it in a game engine have no fear though. They all fix this in the pipe in my experience.

#3

Thanks for the info bodyrott. I have heard that basically there is no Maya solution- but I haven’t given up yet. If I get an answer, I’ll let you know.

Craig

#4

You could always use a second set of UV’s…

#5

Hmmm- that sounds good. Are you suggesting I can use one set of UVs for the normal map and a second set for the color map? I wasn’t aware that this was possible- I know you can have multiple UV sets for characters, but I’m unaware of how to make them attribute specific. Or… do you mean something else? I’d appreciate any further insight into this.

Craig

#6

Step 1: Create two file nodes, one for the first color map, and another for last second color map. The normal map will be automatically generated.

   Step 2: Create three sets of UV's. Name them: Normal, ColorMap_1, ColorMap_2. 
   
   Step 3:Open the Relationship Editor after the surface is sampled and put the maps in their respective sets. You now have two (mix)maps occupying the same (color) channel and UV space. Add as many as you like!
#7

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