Hi, I am learing how to use inkscape becouse I am interested in use it to create patterns or details, and the idea was to bake them in a normal map. What could be the best way to do this? I thought that I could use the boolean modifier in the highpoly model(that then I bake the normal map to a lowpoly model) and use it, but this creates very bad topology, and that leaves strange shaders.
I tried making sharp those edges, and it creates a good result, but maybe in future models I cannot do that, or it will take so much work, so I wanted to know if I could do it in a better way, or sometimes will be more easy to paint the pattern in the texture, and not try to use a normal map
Well, for me it suffices to create BW map for bump or displacement (one can then simply extrapolate Normal map with other tools or in shader editor, if needed)
To see why this approach is bad, try using a brick texture generator to drive bumps. See what output the bump node creates when mortar smooth is 0 or 1. Only when there is a change in intensity will a bump map produce anything useful. Only when the normal map is non flat will it produce something that separates it from the surrounding flatness.
If you use inkscape to produce a bumpmap, it will look very bad until you add some blur to it, as that will create the required gradient.
You can still use boolean - just render it out as a height difference map instead. Since this will be a pure black and white image, you need to blur this one as well.
Using black and white as displacement works better, as the subdivisions will create some gradients. Sharp transients won’t look super, but the illusion is better because of actual occlusion which bump/normal doesn’t produce for us.
