Issue with Mudbox to Maya normal maps.
Hey Polycount, I'm having a problem with getting my normals to look right once I export them into maya, the problem is that my model in maya seems to be keeping both the default maya normals as well as my normal map normals :poly127:
Here is a screenshot so you know what I'm talking about: (It renders exactly the same problem)
And here is my high poly in Mudbox: (as you can see it's smooth~.. not janky)
And yes my normal map DOES look correct.
Here are the extracting settings I am using:
Thanks for any replies
Here is a screenshot so you know what I'm talking about: (It renders exactly the same problem)
And here is my high poly in Mudbox: (as you can see it's smooth~.. not janky)
And yes my normal map DOES look correct.
Here are the extracting settings I am using:
Thanks for any replies
Replies
But once you apply your normals to your model isn't it meant to replace the maya normals with your new normal map? It was working for me on my tafe computers but it doesn't seem to want to work on my home computer for some reason.
Whaaaaaa? No, really i have no idea why someone would ever tell you this.
You generally want have the normals on your lowpoly mesh averages(ie: soften edges) and only use hard edges when you run into smoothing errors. Theres tons of into documenting normal maps and how they work if you search or browse the stickied threads here.
But more or less, with tangent space normal maps, you are not "replacing" the normals, you're instead working with them. So the hard edges etc you have on the lowpoly mesh is very relevant to the final result.
You may be able to fix this by simply setting all of your edges to soft, its very important to keep in mind that the lowpoly mesh normals need to match up exactly on the mesh you bake with, and the final mesh you display on. If not you're going to run into smoothing errors. Its likely that the best thing to do if you're displaying in maya, is going to be to import your highres and bake in maya as well.
This is why I can't stand my horrible teacher
I tried softening all my edges in Maya but it just completely jank'd up:
So yeah what exactly am I doing wrong? cause I've spend hours trying to figure out how it works but I'm not getting anywhere lol, even if you could point me to some helpful tutorials, because I've had a look but I can't really find anything relevant.
Thanks for the help too
Mesh smoothing it fixes it up big time :S but I'm sure just by looking at other peoples normal maps that its possible to get the same quality on lower res meshes, which now still leaves me just as confused.
Your lowpoly mesh that will be using the normal map in the end needs to have the same normals as the lowpoly mesh used when baking. In other words, you can't just "soften" the edges on the lowpoly using the normal map and expect it to work. You need to re-bake with a lowpoly version with softened edges as well.
Oh and if this fails you could always export your highpoly to another program and do the baking there?
@ivars, Theres my normals (the unwrap includes the beanie if you're wondering why it looks like a lot of wasted space)
@EarthQuake and kodde, I'm 100% sure I used the same low poly mesh I exported into Mudbox and it's stayed untouched, so I don't think its that unless I've done something wrong :S
When I export I'm making my low poly target mesh my level 1 mesh in Mudbox (same amount of tris as the original and as far as I know is the original shape) but I guess as this seems to be the problem area then I'm doing something wrong here.
Am I meant to be using the level 1 as the low poly target mesh? If not what layer am I meant to be selecting from the right hand side to be my target mesh?
You softened the edges of the lowpoly target and rebaked. Then applied the newly baked to a lowpoly version with the same softened edges?
Or did you just soften the edges on the model which is going to be using the normal map?
Because when you say "I tried softening all my edges in Maya..." sounds to me like you are just softening the final lowpoly which will be using the normal map since I take it you are baking the normal map in mudbox?
I'm such a newbie at normal maps that thats what I thought he meant XD
And I'm getting confused with all this talk of baking? I'm using mudbox, doesn't that mean I need to 'extract' the normal map from mudbox?
Hmmmm sorry to be such a noob maybe if anyone knows of any good tutorials that teach you how to make a normal map from mudbox they could link it to me so I can start from the ground up, cause my teacher certainly doesn't know how to teach me it... He seems to just be confusing me by telling me how to do it the wrong way.
If you're still using the maya model then that is a problem. When you sculpt in mudbox it moves the base mesh around and the one before mudbox won't fit the hipoly properly anymore.
I'm not exactly sure about the last step as I am not that familiar with Mudbox, but I think this is how you approach this issue. I'll let others correct me if I'm wrong.
@EarthQuake Ah ok thanks for clearing that up, I wasn't quiet sure because the only baking I've done is with AO and lighting :P
@kodde haha thanks for the pic
Thanks tons for the help guys I will give it a go as soon as I get a chance and get back to this thread