Need help for baking better Looking Normal Maps in 3DS Max

Zaikoni

So i have recently taken hard surface modeling as my main Workflow but i get these weard problems in some parts in the normal map. See these pictures here: https://gyazo.com/033eefd59a46ccba7f5c5844e8ab6534
https://gyazo.com/3fbb017213c9a2533858a30e7638f289

Are these common to happen in 3Dsmax Normal map baking? Are these suppose to be fixed in photoshop.
What i suspect is that it happens usually on rough parts of the model and edges and not so commonly happens on smoother parts of the model because the difference between high poly and low poly is not that big there.

musashidan

Zaikoni said:

Are these common to happen in 3Dsmax Normal map baking? Are these suppose to be fixed in photoshop.

No, and definitely no.  What is common though is people baking NMs and not understanding the process that they are trying to work through. I highly recommend studying (not just browsing) the wiki and stickies found on this site. Every single piece of info on the baking process can be found here. Written by pros with production experience.

And essential to the studying aspect is the practical.  Start with a very basic cube and understand the process that you are involved in, while doing it. Self-experimentation is vital to learning how this works. Just keep test baking and if you're stuck again post again.

As for painting out errors in PS....very bad practice. A NM isn't like a standard texture map, the data contained therein is encoded/decoded RGB pixel to vertex normal/vector data.

Zaikoni

musashidan said:

Zaikoni said:

Are these common to happen in 3Dsmax Normal map baking? Are these suppose to be fixed in photoshop.

No, and definitely no.  What is common though is people baking NMs and not understanding the process that they are trying to work through. I highly recommend studying (not just browsing) the wiki and stickies found on this site. Every single piece of info on the baking process can be found here. Written by pros with production experience.

And essential to the studying aspect is the practical.  Start with a very basic cube and understand the process that you are involved in, while doing it. Self-experimentation is vital to learning how this works. Just keep test baking and if you're stuck again post again.

As for painting out errors in PS....very bad practice. A NM isn't like a standard texture map, the data contained therein is encoded/decoded RGB pixel to vertex normal/vector data.

  Thx for reply but it was not really helpful as far as what i need to do exactly in order to fix the normal map quality.

musashidan

Sorry, but you may have missed the point of my post entirely.

That aside, you have posted the NM but you haven't posted images of your uvs, your low/high poly (I've no idea what you mean by rough/smooth parts of the model) or the rendered result of the map applied to the model.

I only ask these things as the more information you supply the easier it is for us to try and help. I realise you're just starting your NM journey but there are so many things it could be: uvs, padding, uv splits, smoothing groups, cage or no cage, averaged verts or non-averaged, map resolution, AA settings, low to high silhouette match, ray distance, bad triangulation, missed rays, etc.

endeffect

@musashidan is right about this. Pixelization is not the only problem on your normal map, assuming you mean that by "quality". There are other issues on your normal map, that you can't fix by painting in photoshop. It would be more beneficial for you, if you make the things musashidan said.

Zaikoni

musashidan said:

Sorry, but you may have missed the point of my post entirely.

That aside, you have posted the NM but you haven't posted images of your uvs, your low/high poly (I've no idea what you mean by rough/smooth parts of the model) or the rendered result of the map applied to the model.

I only ask these things as the more information you supply the easier it is for us to try and help. I realise you're just starting your NM journey but there are so many things it could be: uvs, padding, uv splits, smoothing groups, cage or no cage, averaged verts or non-averaged, map resolution, AA settings, low to high silhouette match, ray distance, bad triangulation, missed rays, etc.

Yeah i get what you mean is it possible that you could take a quick look of my 3Dsmax Scene? If you could point out the problems to me it could be really helpful. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B55FtjBzMYaxajh4M0dNRm9mUVk/view?usp=sharing

Zaikoni

Zaikoni said:

musashidan said:

Sorry, but you may have missed the point of my post entirely.

That aside, you have posted the NM but you haven't posted images of your uvs, your low/high poly (I've no idea what you mean by rough/smooth parts of the model) or the rendered result of the map applied to the model.

I only ask these things as the more information you supply the easier it is for us to try and help. I realise you're just starting your NM journey but there are so many things it could be: uvs, padding, uv splits, smoothing groups, cage or no cage, averaged verts or non-averaged, map resolution, AA settings, low to high silhouette match, ray distance, bad triangulation, missed rays, etc.

Yeah i get what you mean is it possible that you could take a quick look of my 3Dsmax Scene? If you could point out the problems to me it could be really helpful and i would learn from them. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B55FtjBzMYaxajh4M0dNRm9mUVk/view?usp=sharing