They probably are talking about painting in greyscale like an old style bump map and converting to normal map using a plugin. I prefer hand painting for fine details on flat surfaces. For example the scrollwork in this lovely submachinegun -
Asylum: that's a fantastic example.... I kinda get it now also..found the thread http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=53581 hmm the more I read and think about it, I think I'm starting to understand. so if you paint a diffuse, and then turn it into grayscale, you can then adjust the details.. well basically like a…