Tire tread normal mapping?
polycounter lvl 10
Hi guys, just want to ask how to normal map a tire tread without seams. I tried using the cylindrical mapping but the seams are still noticeable, or maybe I didn't do it right. Is it possible? Thanks for the help! (sorry total newbie here)
Replies
... show us a pic of your highpoly
... show us a pic of your lowpoly
... and show us a pic of your seam
I suggest modeling a flat piece of high poly tire tread that tiles, copy it a few times in a flat straight row. Do the same for a low poly tile. You can then unwrap it while its still flat or unwrap just one of the tiles before you copy and save yourself some UV space its up to you.
Then you can do one of two things:
1)
Then apply a bend modifier and set the bend gizmo to one end and wrap it around until the edges meet up. The seams should match if they don't you can nudge and noodle the bend gizmo around until they're perfect.
The size of the tire is determined by its length so you can go back down the stack add/remove tiles and scale the flat piece to get the right size.
Or
2)
You can do roughly the same thing with a circle spline for a path and the PathDeform(WSM) modifier.
- Create a path, either drag out a circle or select a loop and hit create shape.
- Take your flat tire tread, instance it, apply PathDeform(WSM), click move to path and adjust the % along path. If it doesn't quite fit go back to the flat instance and nudge and noodle it around until the seams meet.
Once you have the right size and shape it MIGHT be a good idea to bake the flat version.
No, I'm not using a high poly. I just model the details and project it to a plane using xnormal then apply it on the tire model (with cylindrical mapping applied). Hope you get what I mean.
I'm not in the right pc right now, but I'll be posting the images asap.
Wow, that was a quick reply. Sorry mate, but I am using maya. Do you know how to do it in maya? Thanks.
The second is found in Animate > Motion Paths > Attach to Motion Path (this causes a object to follow a spline).
Then you can go, Animate > Motion Paths > Flow Path Object (this gives you a cage).
Thanks. I'll give it a try once I get on the right pc. Let you know what happens. Thanks again.
First, I unwrap the part where the thread goes, in one long stretch, via cylindrical mapping. Then, I divide it into parts, for example, an 18-sided wheel I will divide in parts of 3 poly's long every time. Then, I stack all these parts on top of each other.
What you do sorta depends on if you bake highpoly or not: I only bake highpoly for big bulky offroad tires, regular car tires with small tread detail are better and easier in photoshop (trust me, I've tried this many times).
If you do a big offroad tire from highpoly, that has say, 32 "bumps" (don't know the english word for this) on its tread, then you have to make sure your lowpoly and consequently your unwrapping have a common divisor with this number, so the tiling works. Not such a problem, just need to think about it. In the case of 32, a lowpoly of 16 sides divided in parts of 2 is best.
Anyway, once you have the parts stacked on top, and the verts aligned perfectly in your unwrapping, you just bake or create the tiling piece in Photoshop. I guess you can imagine making something tile and align like this, is way easier when you're in photoshop. I just create a black and white tread pattern, and then do a few operations with the Nvidia filter (not just a straight conversion).
I hope you understood, if not, I can try to get some illustrations up for you.
Yeah, got the idea somehow. Of course posting some illustrations would be better.:)