Just a quick question. When you make a texture like this, say a brick floor/wall. Do you use any base geometry to define the shape (AO/UV maps.)? Or do you just go right into photo shop and start from a blank doc?
I didnt say not to do them. Its just when you use normal maps you might as well not even paint the lighting into the bricks in the first place - but that was how I imagined it before I saw this thread. I imagined normal maps on hand painted textures would result in a artificially looking flat sheen but I couldn't have been…