Alphas from Mesh?

3D4Eva

What is considered the best way to make alphas from a mesh? I learned recently how to get camera space normals from the mesh in maya but if I rotate those normal stamps they invert in Painter which means I have to use those stamps with that limitation . If I use a alpha with a height I'll be fine I'm just not sure how to get these in good quality.

I know about zbrush and depth passes but those dont seem that great.

I know about baking a height map using a plane in xnormal but I get stepping when I stamp it in Painter and check the normal height view. I was able to slightly reduce it with AA in the baker, but it is still there.

Kanni3d

Could always use a bit of a blur filter on the layer you're stamping on in painter to soften the edges for a better/fatter normal map, and to also reduce any jaggy aliasing.

3D4Eva

Kanni3d said:

Could always use a bit of a blur filter on the layer you're stamping on in painter to soften the edges for a better/fatter normal map, and to also reduce any jaggy aliasing.

Yes, I tried using a blur and the new problem is I have issues with the edges being too blurred.

I could still use the normal stamps but I would have to flip the green on stuff I rotate, but the problem is I use generators that auto stamp it all and don't have that control after.

3D4Eva

I just found out something super odd... My mesh is fully smooth both high and low when I did the height bake yet I would see the facet look on the normal after stamping it. I did  a dynmesh in zbrush then manually smoothed the mesh and when I did my alpha doc grab it came out perfectly smooth... I really don't understand why it wont work otherwise.  Here is a snap shot:



I will need to do some more learning to find out why it wont work. I smoothed everything in the render options in zbrush. I also smoothed everything on the mesh prior. I even went back and made 100% certain I smoothed everything in maya and it comes out like the first when I bake height info. It seems I can only get a smooth result from smoothing with a brush in zbrush which is very odd!!! :O !!

EDIT: So I found out if I subdivide heavy with smooth in maya it comes out perfectly fine. I guess I had too low subdiv and when I grab these with height you want as much division as possible to avoid the facet issue.

apparently smoothing the mesh normals does nothing when baking this information, you need high subdiv count.