Maya 2009 Transfer Map Normal Map Baking (digitizing)
high dynamic range
So I'm attempting to bake normal maps (and eventually AO maps) through just Maya's Transfer Map tools
I bake, and I get essentially very "digitized/bits" for normal maps, instead of something that looks smooth . . .
I've been hacking away at this for a straight 6 hours, does anyone have any idea what is wrong and what to do?
The green mesh = high res
Grey Mesh = low res
Red Mesh = the transfer map envelope
I bake, and I get essentially very "digitized/bits" for normal maps, instead of something that looks smooth . . .
I've been hacking away at this for a straight 6 hours, does anyone have any idea what is wrong and what to do?
The green mesh = high res
Grey Mesh = low res
Red Mesh = the transfer map envelope
Replies
#hadtosayit
Oh and smoothing out the normals (averaged them) for the wire tree somewhat worked, but I'm not getting the deep cuts that should be conforming to the high res.
So what technical purpose does doing this serve in relation to a (I'm assuming) low-poly model (or high res mesh for that matter)?
What does it specifically do and why would I need to use it?
http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap?action=show&redirect=Normal+Map#Smoothing_Groups_.26_Hard_Edges
For the most part, smoothing on the low poly should more or less look like the high poly. As you saw, the faceted look fights with the normal map and doesn't look as nice.
In your radio model, you have overlapping UV shells, generally bad for baking normals. The overly pink and yellow bits should read as blue. This can be corrected by moving the mirrored shells one unit away, so they're not stacked and breaking the bake results.
http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap#Smoothing_Groups_.26_Hard_Edges
For you issue, look at the "Smoothing Groups & Hard Edges"
Also look at this thread:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=73593
It is a similar issue to what you will have by having hard edges on your low, but a continuous uv shell.
The envelope is completely surrounding the high res model, and both meshes are more or less right on top of each other (in each other, etc.)