normal map / seem problems
polycounter lvl 18
i hope this question hasn't been asked before. maybe i'm a fool, but i coudln't find it.
i've made a high poly model, separated it into sections, and zbrushed each part. i then brought peice by peice back into xsi and normal mapped each one, and then stuck all the normal maps together in photoshop and fixed any simple seem problems
the problems i'm having are as follows:
1. the normal map that was render mapped cut off EXACTLY at the UVS- obviously this created a nasty seem line and EVERY SINGLE seem. fucking stupid and unacceptable that the render map doesn't bleed the texture over the uvs by a couple of pixels, i would think but what do i know. any of you xsi users have any ideas?
2. the normal map generation is LOADED with artifacts. i've been rubber stampting them out but it's too much to get any sort of quality
3. i've been doing all the rubber stamping in deep paint 3d. when i re-export the map, the same problem as above happens again- the texture that's seemless in deep paint gets exported, and doesn't bleed even a pixel past the UV boundries, so deep paint 3d is acctualy creating more seems that it fixes.
this is a stupid problem. the fact that it wont generate a normal map withought little triangle artifacts or seem lines is shockingly stupid.
please someone tell me i'm doing something wrong, and there's a way around this.
-thanks.
i've made a high poly model, separated it into sections, and zbrushed each part. i then brought peice by peice back into xsi and normal mapped each one, and then stuck all the normal maps together in photoshop and fixed any simple seem problems
the problems i'm having are as follows:
1. the normal map that was render mapped cut off EXACTLY at the UVS- obviously this created a nasty seem line and EVERY SINGLE seem. fucking stupid and unacceptable that the render map doesn't bleed the texture over the uvs by a couple of pixels, i would think but what do i know. any of you xsi users have any ideas?
2. the normal map generation is LOADED with artifacts. i've been rubber stampting them out but it's too much to get any sort of quality
3. i've been doing all the rubber stamping in deep paint 3d. when i re-export the map, the same problem as above happens again- the texture that's seemless in deep paint gets exported, and doesn't bleed even a pixel past the UV boundries, so deep paint 3d is acctualy creating more seems that it fixes.
this is a stupid problem. the fact that it wont generate a normal map withought little triangle artifacts or seem lines is shockingly stupid.
please someone tell me i'm doing something wrong, and there's a way around this.
-thanks.
Replies
Seams, man, seams!
Is it XSI you're using to render the normal-map, or ZBrush? I noticed last time I tried ZBrush-generated normalmaps, they were artifacted to hell and back.
Tried exporting the low- and high-poly models to .obj or .ase format and loading them into Melody, ORB, or some other free normal-mapping software?
You shouldn't really have to hand-paint any normal maps at all, software should deal with stuff like that.
However if your models are not all one piece, then obviously seams will appear where the geometry splits, since it cannot possibly interpolate between unattached geometry.
haha yah, no matter where i go in life, i'll always be a terible speller. sory about that
i'm using xsi, but have tried zbrush and get the same result. and yah, i'm reading up on the ati normal mapper now and will attempt to use it. i'm just gonna do this the traditional way i guess.
thanks for the info.
as it happens, i've fought and fought and i've got it more or less working alright.
there are a few artifacts here and there, but i managed to fix the seem line problems with a seccond version of my high poly model. i'll post the results in the P&P forum in the next few days.