Normal Maps + Bump Maps
Hey I just want to address mudbox's new features, specifically, combining normal and bum maps into one normal map. This is a great feature, because it allows you to combine path precision brushes to normal map detail specifically for video games or any other 3d application. Here are a couple examples of the differences. The following model contains only normal map detail
The second combines normal and bump map data.
Ok so I did not go over board on the normal map, why?
A normal map is based on polygon resolution.
This is to say, if you have a mesh and a 4096 x 4069 texture, if every polygon equals a pixel you need a 16,777,216 polygon mesh, using evey single polygon for every single pixel. if that is a 8192x8192 pixel texture, that mean u need a mesh resolution of 67,108,864 polygons(not triangles)
Thus, the new features in mudbox allow you to combine high detail bump information to normal maps for game design. Personally, MY computer cannon process 16,777,216 or 67,108,864 polygon meshesh well, but there are a number of features in my native photo editing app that let me do fine detail on 4k or 8 k maps that would be very difficult in mudbox, sans the xxmillions of polygons.
following is all the textures used to make this, as well as a nice render with AO
bump
diff
normal
final w/AO:
btw, these boots even before sculpting are approx 10k tris.... so this is all just theory... I wanna work on future games. I'm also no pro, so any comments or crits are very welcome! These are just my thought and opinions and theories and are probably redundant, but please help me learn more!
Exut
The second combines normal and bump map data.
Ok so I did not go over board on the normal map, why?
A normal map is based on polygon resolution.
This is to say, if you have a mesh and a 4096 x 4069 texture, if every polygon equals a pixel you need a 16,777,216 polygon mesh, using evey single polygon for every single pixel. if that is a 8192x8192 pixel texture, that mean u need a mesh resolution of 67,108,864 polygons(not triangles)
Thus, the new features in mudbox allow you to combine high detail bump information to normal maps for game design. Personally, MY computer cannon process 16,777,216 or 67,108,864 polygon meshesh well, but there are a number of features in my native photo editing app that let me do fine detail on 4k or 8 k maps that would be very difficult in mudbox, sans the xxmillions of polygons.
following is all the textures used to make this, as well as a nice render with AO
bump
diff
normal
final w/AO:
btw, these boots even before sculpting are approx 10k tris.... so this is all just theory... I wanna work on future games. I'm also no pro, so any comments or crits are very welcome! These are just my thought and opinions and theories and are probably redundant, but please help me learn more!
Exut
Replies
i.e. shirt
normal map the creases and crinkles
bump map the fibers with a tiling texture on a separate map channel
once again all theory....
lmk if this's the wrong thread
hate tanking a sexy idea...
Exut
I don't get it, if you are in mudbox in the first place, why not just sculpt in those details right into the high poly? I could see this being usefull if you are applying details that cant be modelled in, but you would usually do this in photoshop anyway.
4096 and 8192 maps have enough pixels that could create the illusion of more polygons being used in the sculpt than actually were, but you probably wont see any benefit or gain in detail unless you actually plan on using a 4096 bump map in the game (which seems pretty excessive for a character's boots)
.
Otherwise, the detail a 1024 map provides should still be manageable for most machines to handle during the sculpting phase. Even the smallest details like the stitching looks like they would still show up well in a normal map (and capturing it all in one map sounds like a better deal than introducing a new texture or channel into the mix).
My main problem in mudbox is making 90degree hard edges. Every time I sub divided the boots, those straps turned to ovals. reforming them was such a pain, and I felt a waste of time. I felt for things like that that you want to maintain a hard edge it is better to subdivide in 3ds max. This subscription pack also has a feature it says that imports edge data, so you can define the hardness of an edge in 3ds max. I can only assume this means mudbox uses this data to maintain hard edges during sub-division. This is also cool.
Another big problem area was the cut out pattern on the size of the boot. That was easily done in photoshop just making a path and filling it. Done in 3 seconds. I could not even begin to imagine how to sculpt that, maintaining a uniform depth of about 3 mm, as well as the hard edges.
That is why I like this ability to combine the normal and bump into one map in this subscription pack. I haven't used it, but I just think it's cool considering this situation. If there are good ways to sculpt the details I was mentioning, please share! Like I said I mostly resorted to photoshop and a bump map here since I couldn't get mudbox to do what I wanted.
too bad the cgted.com is not there to dl it
It uses a material while your painting it so that you have full editing powers like layers and stuff, but there is a button to commit the bump into the normals.
nDo2 came out, http://quixel.se/.
[ame="
In 3ds max the normal bump material is cool too cause it supports combined normal and bump map materials.
I originally tried using the bump as a displacement map to then bake the normal (in order to combine them) but the results were crap.
btw I don't work for autodesk...
I was also wondering if normal maps can do 90 degree edges?
http://www.svartberg.com/tutorials/article_normalmaps/normalmaps.html#1.1
http://freesdk.crydev.net/display/SDKDOC3/Chamfering+Edges (previously linked to by computron)