3ds max material for procedural bump

demilich

I was wondering if anyone new the best way to bake a highpoly object w/ a material that has a procedural bump map to a lowpoly? The highpoly object has a procedural looking detail, but I want to bake it from the high to low, rather than adding it to the lowpoly texture and worrying about seams.
Is this possible without adding UVS to the highpoly model?
Something similar to Zbrush noisemaker for the highpoly but without adding more geo, instead adding it to a bump map and procedurally tiling it.

If there is a better method for this, I would like to know.

Thanks.

Eric Chadwick

Yes, this is totally possible, and I've done this before. Max has procedural 3d textures, and they don't use UVs at all.

You can make the highpoly look the way you want, then use Render To Texture to bake both the geometry and bump mapping into a normal map.

However it's usually better (and easier and faster) to add this kind of detail in a sculpting app like Zbrush or Mudbox or 3D-Coat. Because you can control exactly where you want those details to go.

Procedurals in Max tend to look too regular, too mechanical. And placing the bump detail requires masks which you have to paint. You could use Viewport Canvas to paint the mask, but if you're doing that you might as well paint the bumpage in a true sculpting app, since you're going to be 3d painting something.

demilich

Thanks for the response.
Are Cellular, dent, noise, smoke, etc the 3d textures you refer to in 3ds max. I originally thought about and went with the Zbrush method you said and it gave me exactly what I was looking for. I even managed to replicate the exact detail I wanted with Noisemaker over my highpoly mesh. But once I applied it to the highpoly in Zbrush it was too high for it to keep the details from Noisemaker. It hit somewhere around 14-15 mil.
As a result, what I tried was creating a semi-tiled normal map off of the Noisemaker pattern I created and then applied that to the highpoly in 3ds max, but had to give it UVS. It looks pretty good except where the seams hit. Now that you mention 3d coat, I wonder if I can apply this same semi-tiled normal map into the baked lowpoly mesh in 3d coat procedurally? Somehow how apply it in 3d coat as a different layer procedurally.
Could I do this same thing in 3ds max? use a procedural bump material and apply my Noisemaker normal map on the highpoly and finish it off with RTT?


Thanks again.

Eric Chadwick

Yes, those are 3d procedurals. In 3ds Max you could use a Composite map in the bump channel, and layer several bump maps in it, some using UVs and some not.