Around a day ago, I found the nice tutorial that teaches entire workflow to create maps.
I watched it, and tried it. And, this my result.
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This is the best so far I tried. Well, at least it is not melted chocolate. :-)
However, there are some issues... ;_;
Problem 1, Red Line: Why these parts are so shining? That part suppose to be wood.
Problem 2, Blue Line: That part suppose to be black (shadow) instead of white (it only happens when the light irradiates.
Problem 3, Green Line: The worst one. Iron ring suppose to be pop up instead of digging in wood planks.
This is my diffuse map (I resized all of images into 50% of original for uploading purpose):
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And, this is my lady:
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Actually, my normal map is composited by two normal maps:
This is what I called "Detailed Normal Map" which is "overlay" in the Photoshop CS:
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And, this is what I called "simple normal map" which is "normal" in the Photoshop CS.
As you can see, this is just baked one from High poly one:
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By the way, I use "Transfer map" and "Normal Map Online (
http://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/ ) to create my work.
Do you know why those issues happen? Is it just lack of practice? Or, am I making some mistakes?
Thanks :-)
Replies
Don't worry about the "detail normal map." That isn't what the industry calls a detail normal map, and you should first focus on getting a good clean bake without overlays or editing the normal map.
NormalMap-Online is outdated for anything but tiling or flat normal maps, and should not be used for a baked normal map.
Problem 1, Red Line: Looks like there was a projection issue and the inside of that lip did not bake to the texture. Try playing with the projection settings, adjusting the lowpoly, or the cage.
Problem 2, Blue Line: Try previewing the asset in a game engine, Marmoset, or SketchFab
Problem 3, Green Line: If it's truly inverted, you may need to invert the green channel of your normal map, but to me, it looks like you might need to just exaggerate the edges more to bake better http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/File:Normal_slopes_hatred.jpg
Ta dah~
Like this ? :-)
First off, show us what your high poly model looks like.
Sorry I did not how up high-poly. This is my high-poly model:
The full of color is for creating what tutorial guy called "Color ID Map".
I render this using Maya 2015 Mental-ray.. Last time, I saw the comment that told me to not using game engine for now. I did not mean to be arrogant.
A high poly model has control loops and is smoothed at the very least and to provide better lighting. Normal map is basically the difference between your low poly and your high poly. Like sculpting details, scratches, noise, and smoothness. There is no need to make a normal map if your high poly has no difference with your low poly.
About the color ID maps, you can use them to assign different material ID's to an object, so what you basically want to do is have one color for your wood material, another color for your metal material etc.
You are right.. if there no big difference between hp and lp, then I don't need normal map at all. Simple Bump map will do.
About the scratch.. I have a question.
Let us assume that I want to stamp "Mickey Mouse logo(or stamp)" on the top of the barrel. So, it looks like somebody carved.
I believe I have two options
Method One. Sculpt it using Maya or Zbrush ( which is my nightmare ;_; ). Bake it and apply
Method Two. Just modify normal map file using Photoshop.
I think method two if fine enough. Am I right ?
Yes, but it's slower than using something like Substance Painter, which does a better job of applying it in terms of speed. That's a Method 3.
Go back, and edit your high poly where you're using control edge loops or other methods like beveling to get rounded, turbosmoothed edges.
If you're here anyways, you should REALLY take a look at these two high poly modeling methods:
http://polycount.com/discussion/168610/proboolean-dynamesh-hardsurface-workflow-tutorial
Ben uses 3Dsmax here, but you can find script plugins like KTools to operate your booleans in Maya.
Warren Marshall shows you that you don't need to do control edge loops ALL the time as long as your high poly LOOKS right.
And render your game assets in a game engine. Unreal and Unity are free; you can download them right now.