Floating Object related issue & normal map

debayan

Hello there, what are some best ways to smooth out the area where floating object intersected to the parent object,

It's always better to keep less floating objects but time efficiency I do that often,

so, is there anyway to make it look like both are same object(just like extruded) through normal+ao?
see the image.

musashidan

With floaters you can flare out the open border edge loop where the 2 intersect so that the normals blend in when viewed perpendicular. With this handle, though, that wouldn't make sense. In the real world it would either be welded to the plate or screwed from the back. It would never be a single, solid piece. This is something to always keep in mind when modeling. Try to build your model as it would be built in the real world. If I were modeling this I would pick either of the 2 real world methods: I would either model it as one piece and add welds to the high poly in Substance Painter or Zbrush, or I would leave it as you have it and add detail in S Painter to the normal map by stamping a circle indent at the intersection to indicate a hole or recess to house the handle.

debayan

"add detail in S Painter to the normal map by stamping a circle indent at the intersection to indicate a hole or recess to house the handle. "
Can you be a little bit more specific on it?

musashidan

What I usually do for a part like that is stamp down some negative height detail to make it appear that one part is housed into or jointed to the other. So in your handle case above I would split the view to 3d/UV, find the island, line up a circular alpha(or just the default brush with desired hardness) to the AO from your bake where these 2 objects intersect, stamp the brush while checking in the 3D view to make sure it lines up. Now it looks much more natural and as if the pieces are jointed together. I will also use this technique with more irregular intersections by cutting panels lines around the intersection with a small brush and in the 3D view.

I used to do this work by either modeling it into the highpoly, using floaters, or sculpting in Zbrush. Now I just do it all in S Painter.