Normal Map Help

neverwander

Hey y'all! Working on a model for school, and I've run into a bit of a problem while baking my normals. I'm making an old radio and the slats that run across the front aren't baking out well. It seems that for some reason they seem to be reversed. Already checked the face normals and UVs, nothing wrong there. Any body have any idea what's going on?

BertR

If the normals look reversed always try to flip the Green or Y channel.. What shader are you using?

SaferDan

This is Maya right? Check your cage I think it isnt big enough to cover the slats...

Also this probably belongs in Tech talk

matthewjvia

It looks like the normals on the high poly of the slats are reversed. In the viewport, go to lighting and turn off two sided lighting. Any objects that are inside-out will turn black. If that happens, then reverse the normals. If they do not turn black, try freezing transformations on them and any groups that they are parented under.

Aslo, you may have a problem later because I can already see that they normals on those parts aren't uniform all the way across. Notice the shift from red to yellow in the center. That is probably the result of your cage distorting, so you might want to look into that.

neverwander

Matt you hit the nail on the head. Somehow the normals on the highpoly slats had gotten reversed. Then I did a few tweaks to the cage and managed this nice clean bake. Thanks for all the help guys! I'll post up the finished model later tonight.

neverwander

And.... DONE! Comments and Criticism are welcome. This took me a total of about 15 hours. Wish I had had more time to spend on it, but such is life.

desktoppirate

I would spend longer on the spec map as right now it seems like clouds filter over everything, I would add some finger prints, scratches etc very subtly in the spec. I also think the lighting on the model fro the presentation is too flat, it needs a dark side or something to give contrast.

neverwander

Good point. I had planned to put some in, but ran out of time as I had a plane to catch. Definitely need to work on my spec map abilities. It is by far my weakest skill. I'll put some practice in on that over the holidays.

neverwander

Hey y'all. Just spent a few hours updating my textures and trying to push things a further. C&C welcome!

I know spec maps are definitely my biggest weakness right now, so any pointer you can give on that would be greatly appreciated.