A Question about Getting High Quality Detail With Baking Maps

#1

Greetings Everyone!

I have a general question about the different kind of mapping you can do in Maya. See, I am trying to add detail to a low poly mesh. I’ve played around with normal maps, making a simple high poly cube model and then baking it’s detail onto a low poly cube. The issue I am having now is that Normal Maps do not seem to capture geometry depth detail. I’ll create a model and then go to map it out, but anything that has been extruded outward on the modeled object will bake out as a flat representation…

So my question is, do I use something like a bump or displacement map to capture the actual geometry detail of a high poly object? Or am I missing something else?

THANKS GUYS!

~MayaFreak31~

#2

if you model for normalmaps you dont extrude just flat cubes… you need to create pyramid shapes… extrude a face and scale it down… everything thats needed in the sihouette of the object has to be modeld…

#3

Alright, I’ll give that a go. Thanks man. :slight_smile:

#4

Normal maps are lighting maps: a flat object will always be flat, but lighting will look like it has more detail. Bump maps are a simpler form of the same thing. If you want to add real detail with a map, you need displacement maps.

A couple things to note, though:

  • Maya isn’t good at baking maps. Its baking tools for normal maps are nearly useless, and I don’t think it does displacement map baking at all. I use Mudbox for that, and it’s cheap. Zbrush can also do it, and other modelling-focused tools like it. Once you have a displacement map, you can use it in Maya.
  • Displacement maps are typically only useful if you have very high detail objects. If you’re modelling a 5m vertex Hulk, it makes sense, but if you only have 100k vertices, it usually doesn’t. In my experience, if something is lightweight enough that you’re modelling it in Maya, displacement maps are probably overkill. They also complicate some things (displacement maps are very sensitive to UV seams).

Of course, if you’re just trying things out to learn, don’t let that stop you.

#5

Hehe! Yeah man, just kind of trying my hand at everything. I figured Displacement Maps were the way to go. I also did consider Zbrush. Granted it’s pricey… but very much worth it from the looks. Thanks for the tips!

~MayaFreak31~