Skin Maps Question

Comments

• Lyoness Posts: 1,632

  January 2017

  blue = normal map

  grey = bump or spec map
• Canary3d Posts: 2,033

  January 2017

  Small clarification: a map that is normal--as in regular/usual/ordinary--is not the same thing as a "normal map" which is a special 3d effect map that goes in the normal channel. 
• unknownmystery445 Posts: 414

  January 2017

  Canary3d said:

  Small clarification: a map that is normal--as in regular/usual/ordinary--is not the same thing as a "normal map" which is a special 3d effect map that goes in the normal channel. 

  What's the use of the normal map in the parameters tab? Actually can you kindly explain to me the buttons there? Except for the usual like scaling, x and y stuff. :) I want to know more about the other buttons like the bump, normal, refraction etc. :)
• Oso3D Posts: 15,085

  January 2017

  A surface Normal is a vector (direction) from the object that determines facing. So, for example, if you have a blister on an object, the center will have a normal pointing straight away from the object, while the sides will 'point' in various directions.

  This is communicated as a color map, where each axis is represented by a different color (RGB), and then combined, encoding a direction.

  Pure White would be max X/Y/Z, Pure Black would be min X/Y/Z, and so on.

  This allows a renderer to 'fake' surface details much more precisely than with a bump map, because the renderer knows exactly how light should bounce.

   
• Oso3D Posts: 15,085

  January 2017

  Unfortunately, it's a lot harder to generate Normal maps because it DOES require processing, rather than just tossing a bunch of values down and calling it a day.

  Thankfully, lots of image editors have 'Bump Map -> Normal Map' converters (including Photoshop), and there's also http://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/ , which will use your video card (if you have NVIDIA) to generate normal maps via browser UI.

   
• PedroC Posts: 200

  January 2017 edited January 2017

  unknownmystery445 said:

  Canary3d said:

  Small clarification: a map that is normal--as in regular/usual/ordinary--is not the same thing as a "normal map" which is a special 3d effect map that goes in the normal channel. 

  What's the use of the normal map in the parameters tab? Actually can you kindly explain to me the buttons there? Except for the usual like scaling, x and y stuff. :) I want to know more about the other buttons like the bump, normal, refraction etc. :)

  A "nomal map" (the blue image with R,G,B "drawings" ) gives you more details "simulate" a more faceted mesh in x,y,z directions in the rendered process. So you can manage a mesh whitout a lot of poligons and avoid your machine does a lot of caulculations and let you work more easily. A displacement map (a grayscale image) do more o less the same (make-alter real mesh) but only in the normal (vector) of facet. A bump map (a grayscale image) simulates, not make, that displacement. All three in the reder time. So depent on the map type selected you will need more o less time for you renders and effects in the details. (and a "vector displacement map" does the same as a dispacement map but in x,y,z as a normal map).

  Post edited by PedroC on January 2017