Normal Mapping / Lighting Question

WickedFingers

Hi,

I have a question regarding a model I recently normal mapped. The bake turned out great but after I ran a test render in 3d Max I noticed certain area refuse to lighten up... I tried to add lighting sources but they have no effect. Can anyone help me with this???

I can't find any tutorials that explain what the problem might be...

Kawe

Post some images please

WickedFingers

This is without a lighting source. I think my problem is the normal map. No shadows should be casted in the environment and yet an dark black blotch remains in between the toes. Also, I didn't include an image but the opposite side of this mesh is completely black. ?




This is what I get when I added an omni light in the scene... almost no difference at all. The space between the toes remains dark, hiding all the normal map detail. It's probably a simple solution I'm over looking... Any one have an idea?

Mr GetDown

You may have a object map instead of tangent map.

WickedFingers

I think your right, I was using an object map. I recreated a tangent space map but ran into another issue. seems the red and green channels are conflicting with each other. I tried both flipping the red and green channels but ended up with the same issue.

I'm stumped... here are some pictures so you can better understand my problem.

here I'm generating the tangent space map and the end result looks fine but...





When I exit Z-mapper my red and green channels are clearly not matching up. I tried to flip both the red and green channels but this does not help.





What it looks like when mesh is exported and imported into Max with a normal bump. Any answers... ?

WickedFingers

All is well I found out what I as doing wrong. I guess all I had to do was flip my green (y) channel direction within the material editor under normal bump and "Not" inside z-mapper itself. Thanks to all who helped, much appreciated.

Mr GetDown

Also zbrush makes life easier and comes with pre configured setting for exporting to all the most popular applications. You can load the configuration for max under "Open Configurations"