Weird Shading
polycounter lvl 5
Hi
I swear I already started a thread about this, but I can't seem to find it in my post history. Not sure if I used a different account...
Basically, after mirroring a symmetrical character mesh, and offsetting the UVs before baking, I've noticed there will sometimes be weird shading produced by the Normal map. It shows up in UE4 as well.
The last thread I posted about this, I think someone shared a thread on how to fix it...? I'm not sure if I ever saved it. Any ideas?
Thanks
Replies
Found the thread about the seam fix. :)
https://polycount.com/discussion/51088/tutorial-fixing-mirrored-normal-map-seams/p1
i think you might be able to just "unlock normals" in the 3d program and that should resolve it. That is maya terminology, so if you don't know what it means you might need to figure out what the corollary is in whatever program you use to try it.
Yeah looks like explicit normals that need to be removed, and you can re-apply your smoothing groups and bake. That "seam" fix in that thread is not only ancient, but a different scenario altogether (which also has contemporary easier/faster/non-destructive ways of resolving).
What are some of the other ways of resolving it? The issue outlined in that thread is identical to what I've run into before, whether it's with a character's face or an object/accessory.
Yeah, I know how to do it in Maya. Maya has the best way of fixing Normals. :) I'm not 100% sure I do it right in 3ds Max though. I've tried resetting the Normals with an Edit Normal modifier and then re-adding the Smoothing Groups, or using Auto Smooth, but that hasn't resolved the issue.
Hmm. There's definitely something off here. With my character's default A-pose, the Normal map looks perfectly fine. However, when I apply the same maps to my posed mesh, that's when the problem surfaces. I'm guessing, somewhere along the way, the Normals on the mesh have changed...? Not sure if putting them back exactly as they were would resolve it...?
seems to be inverting, check the cuff of the pants as well. Normals need to be the same as they are baked with. The minute mesh normals change, normal maps break.
Hope I can fix it. I'd hate to lose the progress, hours and days worth of work from all the rigging/skinning/posing I've done. Really not sure what's happend. :-\
Okay, it looks like I've fixed it. :D I did try just unlocking the Normals in Maya and then added a Soften Edge, but it didn't seem to fix it. In Max though, I added three separate Smoothing Groups for the different unwrapped parts and that's sorted it. ^^