Normal map detail ideas ?

8th_Scepter

Hi Polycount! This might be a stupid question, but how do they come up with the little details for the high poly models to bake on low poly?  I have trouble adding little detail like those shown in the picture for my models. What's their inspiration?
Thanks.

FourtyNights

At least these methods came to my mind:

- Modeled (or sculpted) in to the high poly
- Floaters modeled on top of the high poly
- Added in a regular PS or other image editing program after baking, such as Substance Painter/Designer or Quixel Suite (NDO)

With the last method they're usually combined with the baked normals. This is a great plugin to combine normals:
http://vincentcallebaut.com/CombineNormal.html

8th_Scepter

FourtyNights said:

At least these methods came to my mind:

- Modeled (or sculpted) in to the high poly
- Floaters modeled on top of the high poly
- Added in a regular PS or other image editing program after baking, such as Substance Painter/Designer or Quixel Suite (NDO)

With the last method they're usually combined with the baked normals. This is a great plugin to combine normals:
http://vincentcallebaut.com/CombineNormal.html

Thanks. How do you think they come up with the ideas to add x shape there ? Do they look at reference art or go off concept.

Does the combine normal work with PS cc ? 

repete

This is also effective:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNMSqkfOenI

pixaeiro

Hi 8th_Scepter,

I am developing one of those tools to paint details into the normal map. You can check it out at PixaFlux.com.

This is a post I made yesterday about the new Free Beta Version.

And a YouTube video that explains what it is and how it works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NN777CafGw

Cheers!

BagelHero

By observation! They look at movies and objects they like (being careful to not just plagiarize) and analyze what they like about the decals and shapes and why. Then they nab them and alter them until they have something that fits the object they're making. Eventually, you get a large visual library of shapes and decals and stuff and what they're usually found on, and you can just make them up from memory. But the best tip for now is to look at lots of photo ref and then movie and game art ref Hope this can help a bit!