Creating texture maps from photography
The other day I took some photos of various surfaces in nature such as tree bark, rocks, etc. I've been experimenting with different methods of creating textures by starting from the seamless color maps that I create from these photographs.
So far I've worked out a decent trick in photoshop for separating and isolating the different elevations in tree bark, and creating a normal map from it.
What's been trickier however, is the muddy stone color map I've attempted to create normals from. Programs like NDo2 and Knald obviously can't figure out how to read color map information and extrapolate enough to create a decent normal, which is why the stones here appear much flatter than when I was actually stepping on them.
Funny, just realized - I could totally take this normal and create a decent old cobblestone road texture, but that's not what I'm looking for. I've got an idea though, and would like discuss it with Polycount as well as receive feedback and ideas from the pros.
In Crysis 1, there's a splendid stony texture that obviously employs... parallax/displacement/height mapping/tesselation... (could somebody please explain to me what it actually is just in case?) The same effect is also in the Heaven benchmark
http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/2351/crysis2011032714554844.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/111111/Capture392.jpg
I'm thinking I can achieve these results by stenciling the color map of my muddy stone texture (which is already tileable) onto a plane in Zbrush or Mudbox, and manually sculpting out each major rock/form so that I can create corresponding normal, height, or any other maps that are necessary to achieve these results. I could then take them into photoshop for cleanup, but I anticipate that it will match the color map nicely and effectively.
Is this a conventional and recommended method?
Replies
It's a parallax map. I would suggest trying it on your tree bark as well. It will make it seem like it has more depth.