nDo - Normal creation toolkit

Av7xrocker97

Oh how I wish there was a gimp version of this

teddybergsman

animax,

Thanks for finding this CS2 specific error! It has now been fixed and a new version is available for download: http://cgted.com/nDo.zip

xXm0RpH3usXx,

This is not the final version! It is still in alpha (v0.6.2). I'm sorry for not having been more active in the forums. I have been doing a couple of inofficial releases, including fixes and minor new features. Bigger stuff to come

Whoot,

Big thanks for tracking and providing the solution for this issue, greatly appreciated.

.morph3us

ah, good to hear...
you dont have to be sry though, i believe you have a real life, too, and stuff to do.
just wanted to know whats happening as this thread got a little inactive.

do you have any roadmap, or do you want to keep future features secret until they're fully implemented?

Mik2121

Man, if only this thing had a 3D viewport.. (though I can imagine that to be pretty damn difficult to implement and I'm not realistically expecting it, just 'dreaming' :P

Keep with the good work, Teddy!

animax

Hey teddy,

Thanks for that speedy update, but the latest update is throwing an error regarding "activeDocument.suspendHistory(" not valid.So i checked the javascript file(nDo.jsx) and found that on line 1246 there's is some trouble.

Original Code:

if(m_bVersionIsCS2) {
    activeDocument.suspendHistory(
        "Normal Object Update",
        "NormalEditor();"
    );
} else {
    try {
        NormalEditor();
    } catch(e2) {
        alert(e2.toString());
    }    
}

Modified Code:

if(m_bVersionIsCS2) {
    try {
        NormalEditor();
    } catch(e2) {
        alert(e2.toString());
    }    
} else {
    activeDocument.suspendHistory(
        "Normal Object Update",
        "NormalEditor();"
    );
}

I just flipped the code and it worked for me.Don't know if this is the correct modification.

teddybergsman

Thank you animax! I'm sorry about this accidental issue, there is now a new version fixing this: http://cgted.com/nDo.zip

xXm0RpH3usXx,

The minor things I have planned is full CS support and a small feature for stepping through the normals via the UI. I prefer to make the bigger updates a surprise

Mik2121,

Careful what you wish for!

Teddy

animax

Thanks for the update dude.It's now generating awesomeness.

Chai

teddybergsman: impressive updates, fixed all the issues I had with the last version I tried.

Thanks again for this great plugin !

Whoot

Whoot,

Big thanks for tracking and providing the solution for this issue, greatly appreciated.

No, thank you for making this awesome tool. You saved me lots and lots of work

teddybergsman

Thanks everyone! I'm glad it works for you I released a new version of nDo, featuring two small new buttons ("<" and ">") for stepping through your normal layers without having to leave the UI: http://cgted.com/nDo.zip

Teddy

Cathodeus

Hey Teddy,

This version is awesome i want to know what will you bring us in the near future ? Can't wait :-)

Just two things about the new arrow button left/right is cool, but layer into max are more top/bottom so turning those arrows +90 degree inside the Ui will be perfect :-) And more user friendly.

Another thing is that possible to stop the stepping when user arrive to plane and shift layer with a message like : "Hey my friend there's no ndo layer anymore if you want to move forward : Work harder :-)"

teddybergsman

Cathodeus,

A new version of nDo is available (here: http://cgted.com/nDo.zip) which now implements the things you suggest. When you reach the "Z-shift" or "Plane" layers, you are simply transported to the bottom or top normal layer.

The buttons have also been changed, according to your proposition. I actually had the buttons arranged this way to begin with, but as there are no symmetric "up" or "down" symbols I went with "<" and ">".

Thanks for the great feedback!

Teddy

cw

This is a great tool, I noticed something just now, wanted to let you know in case it is not as designed:

Running nDo on a layer inside a layer group, and duplicating etc. causes some funny layer ordering to happen. Works perfectly in a 'flat' image, however.

I'm enjoying using this very much, thanks again!

Cathodeus

Teddy,

Thanks you so much !

re.wind

Tool is definitely useful, amazing, and much faster than loading up a texture in another program.

.morph3us

Hey Teddy,

got another two features you could add
(not saying that they are crucial, but they'd speed up my workflow immensly)

1. make two buttons, one called save normal, one called save diffuse and call the "save as" dialog by pressing (though only the respective layers are saved out into the new file).
this way one could have a master .psd and save out the different parts easily, so the 3d application doesnt reload all the t imes while working on the texture.

2. Also, how about an easier system to change the different presets?
like...
imagine you got several photo presets for textures and a totally different set of presets that define shapes

now either you make two preset files and swap them every time in the ndo folder or you have them all in one long list.

swepower

This is the error im getting when using latest version of Ndo on cs5 32-bit version.

maxmarty

Whoot wrote: »

Had the same thing, this fixed it for me:

Joshua Stubbles wrote: »

Latest version on the site is giving me this error in CS5:



it runs through the entire process just fine, but gives that error as soon as the main dialog box is supposed to open up.

Open PS and remove the NDo action.
Close PS and delete the NDo folder (c:\Ndo)
Restart PS and reset all preferences (ctrl-shift-alt during startup)
Download the latest version of NDo and install it like you normally would.

Hope this helps.

I still get this very same error message. And no popup is showing up.
Your trick didn´t work. Did anyone find another solution.
This way it seems very uncontrollable.

I am using Photoshop CS3, 32 BIT on windows XP.
It was running once fine, but since i did the latest update i got this error message.

Thanks for any help.

jocose

Are there any plans to allow users to manage layer presets? I've been using nDo, and it's great, but the fact that I have to go in and manually edit the data file to remove templates is a bit annoying. It would be nice if the templates were only saved with the pshop file as meta data or something like that.

I usually make presets per project, and only use a few between projects.

.morph3us

but if you use the preset on only one texture why do you need a preset at all?

also @ teddy:

i just tried to compose several different forms into one normal map.

i hit f3 and it generated the first map fine.
then i selected another layer (outside of the nDo map group) and hit f3.
it did convert the other layer, too, but i had to manually move it inside the zshift - plane range, would be cool if it did this automatically

wretchedgoat

so great


THANK YOU!

Czar

Thank you very much for this

General Question: So, in terms of workflow, I would first make the diffuse map, and finish it completely, and then work on the normal map, right? It's been a while since I've done 3D so I just want to make sure.

.morph3us

well, you can do both...
depends on what you want to do.
there is a small button called "make color" or something like that, i dont have it open right now...

procedurer would be:
put down basic shapes in white
convert it to a normal layer
convert to a sculpt layer
do the above several times
and then hit the make color button to have a basic layout for your diffuse painting or texture overlaying

warby

does anybody know the minimum photoshop version that this works with ? because i kick it oldschool and still use photoshop 7 ( the best photoshop release ever ! for which i have multiple legit keys !)

-so i extracted the zip in the plugins folder ( i assume thats where it goes i didnt find any installation instructions anywhere ?! confirm/denie)
-and launched photoshop no error messages or anything (so far so good)
-if this was working with ps7 where would i find the nDo "launch" button ?!
-i cant see anything under filters ?! is that where it would be ?!

its perfectly possible that this was discussed in one of the earlier ten pages i apologize in advance for redundant discussion !(its 1.30 in the morning here in germany and i quickly wanted to post that question before going to sleep)

fearian

you gotta drag the ndo actions file onto your actions pane! full install instructions are clverly hidden at http://philipk.net/ndo.html

Acumen

Acumen, it is not tested for 7.0 but I'm certain it will not run, I'm afraid. nDo relies heavily on Smart Objects, and these were first introduced in CS2.

I tried quite some updates, but it never worked for me on ps7

.morph3us

hey teddy, did you know, you are featured in the latest 3d world magazin!

maxmarty

Acumen wrote: »

I tried quite some updates, but it never worked for me on ps7

I´ve read that photoshop 7 wouldn't support scripting natively.
But there's a plugin which should solve the problem, if I am not wrong.

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=1536

I didn't try it myself but if you get a positive result I would be interested.

But if the smart object argument above is true, there would't be a chance anyway.

Regards,

Martin

Forgetful

Awesome tool. Thanks for asking questions from the users about how to make it better.

swepower

swepower wrote: »

This is the error im getting when using latest version of Ndo on cs5 32-bit version.

Im still getting this error when the main dialog box is supposed show up. resetting ps or "installing" ndo again does not work. Any help?

Acumen

@maxmarty: yeh I installed this scripting plugin, still didn't work. All makes sense after teddys explanations, imo. It's just not meant to be, i guess

teddybergsman

Thanks everyone for helping each other out and giving such great feedback!

xXm0RpH3usXx,

Regarding your suggestion about automatically moving layers into the Z-shift/Plane range, this is now included in the latest release of nDo: http://cgted.com/nDo.zip

Also, thank you kindly for mentioning the 3D World notice! I really appreciate your regard. I'll make sure to get a copy of the magazine.

jocose and xXm0RpH3usXx,

I do plan on functionality for managing presets. Expect it to come soon!

Acumen, warby and maxmarty,

After further testing and research, I can sadly confirm that nDo indeed does not work with 7.0. Even though the Smart Object dependency has been removed, much other functionality fundamental to the tool is not supported by this early version of Photoshop. nDo now alerts 7.0 users about this unfortunate limitation.

swepower, Joshua Stubbles and maxmarty,

I'm yet to find the solution for this (to me) unreproducible error. I still suspect it has to do with PS corrupting its preference file. Please try the following and let me know if it works for you:

1. Close Photoshop.
2. Open your PS settings folder. Directories differ between versions and operating systems, but you should be able to find it under either C:\**USER NAME**\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CSx\Adobe Photoshop CSx Settings\ OR C:\Documents and Settings\**USER NAME**\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CSx\Adobe Photoshop CSx Settings\.
3. Delete the "Adobe Photoshop CSx Prefs.psp" file. You may want to back up this file to avoid losing your custom settings.
4. Launch Photoshop.
5. Switch back to the folder you just opened. The file you just deleted is back, however now 0KB in size.
6. Right click the file, click "Properties" and check the "Read Only" box.
7. Switch back to Photoshop and try running nDo.

maxmarty

teddybergsman wrote: »

I'm yet to find the solution for this (to me) unreproducible error. I still suspect it has to do with PS corrupting its preference file. Please try the following and let me know if it works for you:

1. Close Photoshop.
2. Open your PS settings folder. Directories differ between versions and operating systems, but you should be able to find it under either C:\**USER NAME**\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CSx\Adobe Photoshop CSx Settings\ OR C:\Documents and Settings\**USER NAME**\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CSx\Adobe Photoshop CSx Settings\.
3. Delete the "Adobe Photoshop CSx Prefs.psp" file. You may want to back up this file to avoid losing your custom settings.
4. Launch Photoshop.
5. Switch back to the folder you just opened. The file you just deleted is back, however now 0KB in size.
6. Right click the file, click "Properties" and check the "Read Only" box.
7. Switch back to Photoshop and try running nDo.

I am happy that somehow the problem got solved. I renamed and moved some folders and files randomly. After a lot of restarts of photoshop, ndo worked again. I either cannot reproduce the problem.

I Just read your answer. Maybe it helps others. Or if somebody else would have the problem.

Thanks for your answer anyway.

Regards,

Martin

THE 5

I still would love to see a normal to height Option.
Maybe by using the "Make Colour option" and stacking multiple white layers of different opacity (dependign on normal depth) over each other ,so you can still increase their opacity if the height is not enough yet.
Or somewhat like that ;p

.morph3us

couldnt you control the height with the levels and curve tools enough?

i think the only thing you'd need to do is collapse all layers of the ndo group, turn it to greyscale (make black and white) and then change it with the above mentioned tools, or am i misunderstanding the idea?


edit:
i threw together a little script, i'm not sure wether it works for you, but i think it does the trick:
http://www.mmm.bplaced.net/nDo/NormaltoHeight.atn

maybe you need to change the first action where he collapses the layers, because i'm not sure if it'll automatically select the right ones on your system in your .psd.
And maybe the curve and levels dont work with yourspecific texture, but its shows what i mean...

teddybergsman

There is now a new release of nDo, which converts your normal maps into height! The height gets the same beveling properties as your normal elements.

This functionality is work-in-progress and currently works best for your hand-made shapes. Full support for converting photo-based normals to height is yet to come.

Get version 0.6.5 here:http://cgted.com/nDo.zip

Teddy

Arcanox

That was a much needed addition. Don't have to rely on crazybump extractions for nice offset mapping now.

Awesome work as usual Teddy

JasonLavoie

wow NDO keeps on getting better and better, i love this!

Thankssss!

Tea Monster

This is amazingly usefull. Thank you for contributing this!

THE 5

Teddy:
Feature suggested, feature delivered. Teddy, you are unbeleivable

xXm0RpH3usXx:
Not quite shure what you mean. Collapsing the normalmap and making it greyscale won't help me get a heightmap.
Anyways, thanks for the effort of writing a script, will still have a look at it for suhre
EDIT:
@xXm0RpH3usXx:

Is that what is supposed to happen, or did I do something wrong?

EDIT2:
@Teddy:
In my suggestion I did not consider overlaping layers :S

Maybe when using all layers on top of the lower one as a mask.

• Your height conversion algorithm jumps to "layer1" and makes it a height map. (default)
• Select all layers above "layer1" and make them a selection mask (Shift+Ctrl+click every layer above).
• Apply a white mask to the orignaly selected layer and black fill the active selection.
• Your height conversion algorithm moves up to "layer2".
• Repeat.

This way will increase the runtiem even more, maybe make it optional like "Overlapping check on/off" or so.

Thank's aggain

EDIT3:
@Teddy:
Ah won't work either, maybe you can find a way though

.morph3us

meh, forget it, its already implemented in the latest version of ndo i think, so you do not need to bother with a workaround...
i see it didnt work now, not sure what i was thinking... >.<

you get more of an ao by this

azarkiowa

Great tool, thanks for sharing. I've stopped using crazybump/xnormal because of this

I'm getting a problem whereby the options menu does not appear after running the script. The default normal gets generated after playing the script, but that's all that happens. I'm running the latest nDo version on CS4. I was wondering if anyone has had a problem like this.

THE 5

xXm0RpH3usXx:
Thanks for the effort anyways

azarkiowa wrote: »

Great tool, thanks for sharing. I've stopped using crazybump/xnormal because of this

I'm getting a problem whereby the options menu does not appear after running the script. The default normal gets generated after playing the script, but that's all that happens. I'm running the latest nDo version on CS4. I was wondering if anyone has had a problem like this.

It works for me on CS4 here.
You mean like, after you closed the file before and you want to continue editing your normals? I usually select the "Z-shift" layer, then run Ndo.
It even works on my test file that was created with one of the first nDo versions

teddybergsman

THE 5,

There is now a new release of nDo, wich upgrades the height conversion. It is now much faster and fully addresses the "x-ray" issue you were experiencing. Thank you for uploading an image demonstrating your problem.

Let me know if anything comes up for you.

Get nDo v0.6.5c!

Teddy

timwiese

HOLY HELL HOW DID I NOT SEE THIS UNTIL NOW?!?! This is amazing! Thank you soo much!

teddybergsman

A new nDo is up for grabs! Over there --> http://cgted.com/nDo.zip

Changes include various height map improvements:

• Height map converter now supports converting all types of hard-edged normals (previously only handeled inner bevel normals, now also converts outer bevel, emboss & pillow emboss normals)
• nDo is now more clever/understanding when z-sorting height elements
• Height maps now never get over/underexposed, even when tons of normals are layered upon each other

Any questions let me know!

Teddy

MainManiac

I love you. Please don't ever charge any money for this.

Cap Hotkill

Frell, maybe he should accept donations at least or charge it for commercial use, he deserves some money for his job!

.morph3us

you can donate to him:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=97BxmVhMxBSU7Iw6Y4GwCBib8VtoLyEN-oJisJTdkS1MbMGdU6Yj2QXOkWK&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d9384d85353843a619606282818e091d0
(its on his website, too)

i thought there would be a bigger update for christmas
couldnt u then just change the different normal map colours and bevel with black and white to even get an ambient occlusion path? (in conjuntion with this height map thingy)

also it seems that on your posted pic there are a lot of details missing on the height map?
(like some of the rivets on the upper map, and some of the torn off elements on the lower...

Cap Hotkill

Such Small details dont use to get reflected on a height map, they are there, but so subtle that you cant see them.