Student - Need help with normal maps!

ChloeFox

Hi!
I'm a first year student, so I know next to nothing 
I've just made a piano. I added textures. When I import into unreal it looks flat and unrealistic. I believe I need to add normal maps to the materials? The lighting just needs to look better on it. I have tried for hours to find a decent tutorial on how to unwrap my 3d model and create a normal map for it, then import the normal map to add to the material in Unreal but I can't find anything that helps. I just want my piano to look more realistic in terms of the materials on it 
Can someone help me please? And yes I know I'm using sketchup and that I should be using 3dsmax or Maya etc but that's what the course is teaching us. I will get to Maya one day I guess.
Thank you!

Zablorg

I am not familiar with Sketchup, but a brief search suggests that it's not exactly designed to do UV unwrapping, or bake normal maps.

I was able to find this plugin that claims to be able to bake normals: https://extensions.sketchup.com/sv/content/clf-normal-map-maker

You may also find this thread useful in terms of UV unwrapping, but I note it expresses surprise that UV unwrapping is even possible at all: https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=63974

Basically, as near as I can tell, your workflow for this is going to be pretty severely limited by the use of Sketchup.

Zablorg

Also, baking normal maps is a pretty common subject for tutorials- I believe the Polycount wiki article on it goes into some depth, for instance.

Are you having trouble finding tutorials that help you understand normal maps conceptually, or is it that you can't find anything on how to do it in Sketchup?

ChloeFox

Zablorg said:

I am not familiar with Sketchup, but a brief search suggests that it's not exactly designed to do UV unwrapping, or bake normal maps.

I was able to find this plugin that claims to be able to bake normals: https://extensions.sketchup.com/sv/content/clf-normal-map-maker

You may also find this thread useful in terms of UV unwrapping, but I note it expresses surprise that UV unwrapping is even possible at all: https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=63974

Basically, as near as I can tell, your workflow for this is going to be pretty severely limited by the use of Sketchup.

Hi Thank you so much for replying! Yeah it's just finding tutorials on how to do it in Sketchup.  I did see that plugin that's available...but I'm not sure of how great it is - the comments on it seem fairly negative and from what I saw of it, it's only really good for doors and flatter objects.
Ok so, I think its best if I just start using another 3D modelling program now instead of later, which one would you suggest? I was thinking Maya?
Thanks again for responding!

Zablorg

ChloeFox said:

Zablorg said:

I am not familiar with Sketchup, but a brief search suggests that it's not exactly designed to do UV unwrapping, or bake normal maps.

I was able to find this plugin that claims to be able to bake normals: https://extensions.sketchup.com/sv/content/clf-normal-map-maker

You may also find this thread useful in terms of UV unwrapping, but I note it expresses surprise that UV unwrapping is even possible at all: https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=63974

Basically, as near as I can tell, your workflow for this is going to be pretty severely limited by the use of Sketchup.

Hi Thank you so much for replying! Yeah it's just finding tutorials on how to do it in Sketchup.  I did see that plugin that's available...but I'm not sure of how great it is - the comments on it seem fairly negative and from what I saw of it, it's only really good for doors and flatter objects.
Ok so, I think its best if I just start using another 3D modelling program now instead of later, which one would you suggest? I was thinking Maya?
Thanks again for responding!

Maya is usually paid software, but as you're a student, I'm guessing you can get access to a free student license? I'm not sure how well Maya does baking by itself, but it can certainly do UV unwraps, and then you can carry out the baking process by using XNormals.

If you can't get Maya, I'd recommend using Blender along with the "TexTools for Blender" addon, which adds powerful baking functionality.

zachagreg

I'd agree with Zablorg on this, if you're goal is get things into unreal without spending money, Blender is the way to go. You can import SketchUp models and files into Blender. Even without TexTools, Blender has the necessary tools for UV unwrapping by default. TexTools definitely makes life a lot easier because as you will soon find out UVs can be a pain sometimes. They are a necessary evil though and won't go away.

I wouldn't worry too much about getting a copy of Maya or Max right now unless you have access to a free license, but even then I'd recommend Blender first Max second. Blender will always allow you to make your creations for free so that's a positive. Also with TexTools all the high and low baking, normals/AO/cavity/thickness maps can be done in Blender without needing to purchase other software. 

I definitely understand that the course you're in is teaching that software but if you feel you can achieve more in a different one then do what makes it so that you can produce the best work possible. 

ChloeFox

Zablorg said:

ChloeFox said:

Zablorg said:

I am not familiar with Sketchup, but a brief search suggests that it's not exactly designed to do UV unwrapping, or bake normal maps.

I was able to find this plugin that claims to be able to bake normals: https://extensions.sketchup.com/sv/content/clf-normal-map-maker

You may also find this thread useful in terms of UV unwrapping, but I note it expresses surprise that UV unwrapping is even possible at all: https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=63974

Basically, as near as I can tell, your workflow for this is going to be pretty severely limited by the use of Sketchup.

Hi Thank you so much for replying! Yeah it's just finding tutorials on how to do it in Sketchup.  I did see that plugin that's available...but I'm not sure of how great it is - the comments on it seem fairly negative and from what I saw of it, it's only really good for doors and flatter objects.
Ok so, I think its best if I just start using another 3D modelling program now instead of later, which one would you suggest? I was thinking Maya?
Thanks again for responding!

Maya is usually paid software, but as you're a student, I'm guessing you can get access to a free student license? I'm not sure how well Maya does baking by itself, but it can certainly do UV unwraps, and then you can carry out the baking process by using XNormals.

If you can't get Maya, I'd recommend using Blender along with the "TexTools for Blender" addon, which adds powerful baking functionality.

Awesome, I've heard Blender is good too, I'll download it today! I have a student licence for Maya but I think I'll try Blender first
Thanks so much for taking the time to help, appreciate it!

ChloeFox

Zablorg said:

ChloeFox said:

Zablorg said:

I am not familiar with Sketchup, but a brief search suggests that it's not exactly designed to do UV unwrapping, or bake normal maps.

I was able to find this plugin that claims to be able to bake normals: https://extensions.sketchup.com/sv/content/clf-normal-map-maker

You may also find this thread useful in terms of UV unwrapping, but I note it expresses surprise that UV unwrapping is even possible at all: https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=63974

Basically, as near as I can tell, your workflow for this is going to be pretty severely limited by the use of Sketchup.

Hi Thank you so much for replying! Yeah it's just finding tutorials on how to do it in Sketchup.  I did see that plugin that's available...but I'm not sure of how great it is - the comments on it seem fairly negative and from what I saw of it, it's only really good for doors and flatter objects.
Ok so, I think its best if I just start using another 3D modelling program now instead of later, which one would you suggest? I was thinking Maya?
Thanks again for responding!

Maya is usually paid software, but as you're a student, I'm guessing you can get access to a free student license? I'm not sure how well Maya does baking by itself, but it can certainly do UV unwraps, and then you can carry out the baking process by using XNormals.

If you can't get Maya, I'd recommend using Blender along with the "TexTools for Blender" addon, which adds powerful baking functionality.

Awesome, I've heard Blender is good too, I'll download it today! I have a student licence for Maya but I think I'll try Blender first
Thanks so much for taking the time to help, appreciate it!

Zablorg

ChloeFox said:

Zablorg said:

ChloeFox said:

Zablorg said:

I am not familiar with Sketchup, but a brief search suggests that it's not exactly designed to do UV unwrapping, or bake normal maps.

I was able to find this plugin that claims to be able to bake normals: https://extensions.sketchup.com/sv/content/clf-normal-map-maker

You may also find this thread useful in terms of UV unwrapping, but I note it expresses surprise that UV unwrapping is even possible at all: https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=63974

Basically, as near as I can tell, your workflow for this is going to be pretty severely limited by the use of Sketchup.

Hi Thank you so much for replying! Yeah it's just finding tutorials on how to do it in Sketchup.  I did see that plugin that's available...but I'm not sure of how great it is - the comments on it seem fairly negative and from what I saw of it, it's only really good for doors and flatter objects.
Ok so, I think its best if I just start using another 3D modelling program now instead of later, which one would you suggest? I was thinking Maya?
Thanks again for responding!

Maya is usually paid software, but as you're a student, I'm guessing you can get access to a free student license? I'm not sure how well Maya does baking by itself, but it can certainly do UV unwraps, and then you can carry out the baking process by using XNormals.

If you can't get Maya, I'd recommend using Blender along with the "TexTools for Blender" addon, which adds powerful baking functionality.

Awesome, I've heard Blender is good too, I'll download it today! I have a student licence for Maya but I think I'll try Blender first
Thanks so much for taking the time to help, appreciate it!

That's obviously up to you, but I believe Maya is by far the professional standard, so I think getting proficiency in that would help you long-term. The broad 3D modelling skills are obviously transferrable, though, and there's no reason you can't learn both.

I had a student license for Maya but had to stop using it in favor of Blender because the symmetrical editing feature wasn't working properly lmao.