adding normal map detail 2d

Ruz

so i want to quickly add some extra normal map detail/greebles to the underneath of the cars I am doing. i could model this stuff but its not a subd model. I could use something like the xnormal plugin for photoshop, but really whats the best way to do this ? any great little programs or should I do it in a 3d paint program like substance painter or similar

dimwalker

You can generate normal from mask in PS and then combine it with car normal.
Or model all the details on temporary mesh, properly bake to plane and combine using substance. Depends on what software you have and how much time you want to spend on it.

pasha_sevez said:

There's a pretty easy and completely correct (from mathematical point of view) method to combine two normal maps in PS. Say, layer A is basic NM, layer B is detail NM. So to put detail from B over A you have to do the following steps:
1. Clone layer B - B2
2. Go to blue channel of B2 and fill it with neutral gray.
3. Set B2 layer blending to Overlay
4. Select original B and set it to Multiply blending mode.
5. Select red and green channels of B and fill them with pure white.
6. Put B and B2 into the new group, use group mask and opacity to adjust blending.

7 (Optional). If your target engine doesn't perform runtime NM normalization - you have to do in manually using for example Xnromal's plugin. But actually everything always works fine even without normalization.

This method works flawlessly with any bit depth and doesn't require any standalone utils. Good luck in normal maps compositions 

P.S. Here's an action I use all the time.

http://l.sevez.net/NM_COMB

Ruz

cheers for that @dimwalker , will take a look at that today

Klunk

that method isn't mathematically correct btw, you need to actually transform the perturbing normal into the coordinate space of each pixel/base normal. then do the addition.

• drag and drop  normal map merger which uses the "correct" maths

  
  NormalMapMerger.zip

  Uploaded Jan 11, 202369.66 KB
  not full tested yet but I sure someone will break it 😉 

Ruz

cheers

Klunk

Ruz

This is the kind of detail I  want to replace (in the panels). its fine just for renders, but I want to be able to export this stuff  as FBX,

but using that boolean workflow means a 'lot' of tidying up