Texturing - Normal mapping help

Zer0Naught

Hey,

I'm still getting used to the normal mapping work flow and I'm unsure how to paint them. Here's what I want to paint: http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=43766 It's a cupboard.

Today I finished a tutorial (http://vimeo.com/26772037) on normal mapping. In the tutorial I used a single plane and made a texture for it. To do this I made a high poly version above the single plane, then baked my normals to it.

So how do I do it to a complex model like this? Do I have to paint them manually? If I do, how so?

I would you like people to share how they would go by texturing something like this.

I'm using Blender 2.6.5 and Photoshop CS6.

Edit: Here is the .blend file, I've used an 'explode' method to try and get it working. But to no avail!
http://www.pasteall.org/blend/18898
~Cheers.

Zer0Naught

Here's an example of what I've tried, for using a high poly mesh and baking onto a low poly mesh: http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=43773

The cupboard itself has shelves on the inside and will have transparent glass. I was thinking that maybe the fact that I have thing INSIDE it, might be messing it up? Gah, who knows.

throttlekitty

The yellowish color is either inverted normals, or the normal map baker finding the backside of a surface that happens to be closer than your intended target. Generally when you have a group of subobjects such as the shelves, it helps to do an 'exploded' bake.

You'd take each of the high and low poly models, and move them away from each other to avoid any overlap issues from baking. The shelves are spaced fine, you could move them all outside the cabinet for baking. What many people do is create a simple two frame animation; first keyframe with everything assembled and the second keyframe is exploded layout.

Zer0Naught

throttlekitty wrote: »

The yellowish color is either inverted normals, or the normal map baker finding the backside of a surface that happens to be closer than your intended target. Generally when you have a group of subobjects such as the shelves, it helps to do an 'exploded' bake.

You'd take each of the high and low poly models, and move them away from each other to avoid any overlap issues from baking. The shelves are spaced fine, you could move them all outside the cabinet for baking. What many people do is create a simple two frame animation; first keyframe with everything assembled and the second keyframe is exploded layout.

I think that'd probably sort me out... Do I have to separate the mesh into separate objects? I'll give it ago today, thanks!

Zer0Naught

I've added the .blend file to the first post.

throttlekitty

Zer0Naught wrote: »

I think that'd probably sort me out... Do I have to separate the mesh into separate objects? I'll give it ago today, thanks!

Yes, or at least separated into object groupings that make sense, like Shelves, Cabinet, Door.