normal height not exporting from zbrush

Notes

I created a plane in zbrush, used a custom alpha to generate this shape so I can export the normals to be used later in photoshop...but the normal that was created was all blue/flat...


I lowered the sub division back to 1 > normal map settings were tangent space with smooth uv's off

thanks again fellas

S_ource

I have no idea what the problem is, but i dont understand why you use an alpha for making shape in geometry then bake it for ps use why dont you just make a normal map from the alpha in photoshop?

passerby

you didnt really explain your problem or how you got the normal, Via matcap or did you bake it.

also if you already got a alpha, why not just run it through NDO2 or crazybump.

cryrid

Using the alpha in photoshop does sound like the easier option.

As for Zbrush, are you attempting to bake this onto a plane or other object whose UV's touch the 0:1 UV edges? That will cause baking errors that can include blank maps.

Notes

I was trying to bake the normal onto the plane in zbrush cause I thought I would not get the illusion of depth from the alpha cause it was only black and white...

thats why I was thinking of using it in zbrush to get the height that I needed then exporting the normals that way....
But I ran it through xNormal and surprisingly I was able to get the height that I needed....
But im still confused as to why I got an all blue normal from zbrush...was it because I didn't create uv's from the plane I sculpted on???

cryrid

You'd need UVs in order to bake. If you just used the default plane, it includes UVs; the problem is that they're touching the 0:1 UV border which causes errors (apparently Zbrush/the MME plugin sees this as multiple tiles).

You can use Tools: Texture Map: New from UV Check as a test, red = bad.

To solve it, just give the mesh new UVs with padding, or scale the existing ones in slightly.

An alternative, since you're working with a planar object, would be to just use the normalRGBmat matcap

passerby

just to clarify you olny need uv's on the Lowpoly.

but like i said in your case you can use the noramalRGBMatCap, or just make it all IN photoshop uisng NDO or something similar since it is a plannear object

cryrid

(It's the same mesh in zbrush)

Notes

@cryrid worked liked a charm I ran the uv check and everything was red :P

in anycase I tried all the suggestions and learned something new the normals matcap is great...I took a grab doc of my plane afterwards :P

thanks fellas