does this help? http://vimeo.com/19399592
On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 10:40 AM, Adam Sale <[email protected]> wrote: > hey Wayne.. Thanks for the tips. > My case is for Rendering with Mental / Vray > > I just can't believe that OOTB SOftimage still doesn't have a proper > Normal Map. > > Its been requested a few times now, but often gets overlooked. > > > On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 5:23 AM, Williams, Wayne < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Because Softimage doesn’t have proper cage functionality most folks I >> know that still use Soft have ditched baking normals with it. Xnormal >> (freeware) is pretty much the quasi-standard app for baking these days. 8 >> bit maps are fairly standard in my travels. **** >> >> ** ** >> >> If you are trying to get more “bump” to your normal you can duplicate the >> map in photoshop, double click it to bring up the layer dialog and set to >> overlay and uncheck the blue channel. Merge those together and you have a >> “stronger” map. Another thing to note is depending on what you will be >> viewing in you may need to invert the green channel of the normal map, else >> the normals will look flipped weird. **** >> >> ** ** >> >> Also, if you are going to be viewing this in a game engine as the final >> result, it is typically standard workflow to check your normals there, >> because in the end, it doesn’t really matter what they look like in >> Soft/Maya/Max. **** >> >> ** ** >> >> -wayne**** >> >> ** ** >> >> ** ** >> >> *From:* [email protected] [mailto: >> [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Adam Sale >> *Sent:* Wednesday, December 12, 2012 2:15 AM >> *To:* [email protected] >> *Subject:* Normal Maps in Softimage**** >> >> ** ** >> >> So, My Softimage decided to play hardball with me and stopped working >> earlier this evening. **** >> >> ** ** >> >> What I had wanted to test out tonight were Normal Maps in Softimage. I >> don't do a whole lot of texturing , and have known the normal map to be a >> little strange in my past dealings with it. **** >> >> ** ** >> >> One of my students is having an issue generating normal maps out of >> mudbox and getting them to work in Softimage. **** >> >> ** ** >> >> Is anyone having success with this, or do you generally import high res >> meshes into soft and use Ultimapper to create the maps.**** >> >> ** ** >> >> When creating maps, is it best to create 16 bit or float maps/ Do they >> always give superior results to 8 bit? **** >> >> ** ** >> >> My main issue with the normal maps out of Mudbox, is that they don't look >> like the correct scale or relief of the normals mesh in midbox, or even >> when I apply the normals to a similar mesh in Maya, and the fact the normal >> map 3 node doesnt allow us to scale normals is a bit perplexing.**** >> >> ** ** >> >> The workaround with mixing the normal map with a mix 2 color node set to >> mix with RGB at .5 and B at 1 doesn't quite cut it.. **** >> >> ** ** >> >> Is there a good working solution that I am simply missing? **** >> >> ** ** >> >> A better normalMap node perhaps? **** >> >> ** ** >> >> Irie..**** >> >> Adam**** >> >> ** ** >> >> ** ** >> > > -- Best Regards, * Stephen P. Davidson** **(954) 552-7956 * [email protected] *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic* - Arthur C. Clarke <http://www.3danimationmagic.com>
