I'm Looking For Advanced And Simple Normal Map(Bump Map) Creating Method(Photoshop CS5 & XNormal)

[Richard]

I've asked TOG | K1CHWA for some normal mapping method, but it seems that he's too busy or lazy to reply me, so I gotta ask everybody who's good at normal map FOR normal map creating toturials, the following is my requirement.

REQUIREMENT

I want to create realistic normal map for survivors' gloves texture, I want the bump effect of the normal map, could you provide some normal mapping tutorials(text or video) for me? I've installed Adobe Photoshop CS5 and XNormal.

I want to create the gloves like this one( http://www.gamemaps.com/details/6505 ), but I have no idea of creating the normal map(bump map) for it, I've painted the diffuse map(base map) of leather glove texture.

What's the method of leather gloves normal mapping?

The above text was quoted from my comment of K1CHWA's homepage.

[Richard]

Normal Map = Bump Map? Is it RIGHT?

[Richard]

@TOG | K1CHWA

[Rectus]

A normal map is a type of bump map where the surface normal coordinates for each pixel are stored as colors. It's what Source uses for bump maps.

If you're making your own model, I'd say that that generally the best way to create realistic normal maps is by making a high-poly mesh, and baking the normals from it onto a UV mapped mesh. This has an additional advantage of being able to bake ambient occlusion and other things as well.

Here is a tutorial for an old version of Blender that explains it pretty well (two pages):
http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/blender/baking-normal-maps-from-models.php

[Richard]

Originally posted by Rectus:

A normal map is a type of bump map where the surface normal coordinates for each pixel are stored as colors. It's what Source uses for bump maps.

If you're making your own model, I'd say that that generally the best way to create realistic normal maps is by making a high-poly mesh, and baking the normals from it onto a UV mapped mesh. This has an additional advantage of being able to bake ambient occlusion and other things as well.

Here is a tutorial for an old version of Blender that explains it pretty well (two pages):
http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/blender/baking-normal-maps-from-models.php

Thanks for reply, I'll read it and ask question if get another problem.

[Richard]

Originally posted by Rectus:

A normal map is a type of bump map where the surface normal coordinates for each pixel are stored as colors. It's what Source uses for bump maps.

If you're making your own model, I'd say that that generally the best way to create realistic normal maps is by making a high-poly mesh, and baking the normals from it onto a UV mapped mesh. This has an additional advantage of being able to bake ambient occlusion and other things as well.

Here is a tutorial for an old version of Blender that explains it pretty well (two pages):
http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/blender/baking-normal-maps-from-models.php

Thanks for tutorials provided again, but I think the method seems to be a bit complicated, I didn't create dedicated normal map for my own model, but I wanna re-paint the official survivors' texture.

Some survivors(excluding Coach & Francis) in the official version, they didn't wear the gloves, so I extract the survivor's UV Unwrap map(diffuse and normal), for the diffuse map, I paint the gloves leather texture on the survivors hand(flesh) texture, make them look like gloves in the first-person view screen, and I need normal map to make the gloves look like real.

I know K1CHWA who has already created many survivors alternative add-on, he assign the custom gloves to survivors who didn't wear gloves before, he just modified the texture(diffuse and normal), didn't change the model, so I think his normal mapping method might be the simplest and efficient way, in my opinion.

[Richard]

Never tell your password to anyone.
Richard: http://steamcommunity.com/app/550/discussions/3/620713633857639373/
My issue, do according to your ability.
xXx_B4r1sDaBl4d3_xXx: hmm i think u should experiment with grayscale images and a normal map creator program
xXx_B4r1sDaBl4d3_xXx: ive made this image: a black shape on a white background:
xXx_B4r1sDaBl4d3_xXx: http://gyazo.com/a4c28a00b662d0ccd06195ed0a30eef7
xXx_B4r1sDaBl4d3_xXx: then created a normal map from it with VTF edit:
xXx_B4r1sDaBl4d3_xXx: http://gyazo.com/cd65f3485cb7540d36472b63b132a300
xXx_B4r1sDaBl4d3_xXx: aspect ratio is not the same, cos VTF edit resized the picture dou to texture size can be 512 1024 etc..
xXx_B4r1sDaBl4d3_xXx: so
xXx_B4r1sDaBl4d3_xXx: it seems like darker looks higher and brighter looks lower in a normal map
xXx_B4r1sDaBl4d3_xXx: http://gyazo.com/543ea1cd8958eb73220bd2e9c6542b1d
xXx_B4r1sDaBl4d3_xXx: http://gyazo.com/981d2fd4543739c94c45ba33d18241e3
xXx_B4r1sDaBl4d3_xXx: added a gray shape +gaussian blur
xXx_B4r1sDaBl4d3_xXx: http://gyazo.com/5cdab10f3ece36192828021311993d25
xXx_B4r1sDaBl4d3_xXx: http://gyazo.com/2c7b1aed13742744c0e4d1c16182bead
xXx_B4r1sDaBl4d3_xXx: compared the gray colour to black ^^

Richard: Thanks for reply, your texts were a bit... long, too many words, I'll spend a while to read it. Anyways, thanks.