im modeling a church, and have created a grayscale bumpmap of the bricks- now im wondering why the bump is only visible where the specularity from the lightsource is most pronounced- such as the side of the building, where as in front the bricks look smooth- how do you get the bump map to look like its applied everywhere
Dont you need a displacement map, not bump map.
as far as I know the displacement map actually displaces the geometry, so you need a high resolution mesh- I just want it to simulate the bump.
I have the same problems with bump maps not showing in the darker/shadows.
Maybe someone can help us both.
Well, this is the way it is. BumpMaps change the lighting of a surface, this is dependend from the type of light that falls on the surface. They have the greatest effect on specular light, because specular light is governed by the reflection laws.
If BumpMaps are not good enough, try a Normal Map. If that is not good enough, use a displacement map.
You definitely should not use bump maps. Use normal maps instead.
There are two ways for creating normal maps:
Sculpt the mesh in High resolution and then bake the normal map.
If you already have a bump map, convert it to a normal map with the normal map plugin in Gimp or Photoshop.
In your case I think you should go for the second option. Be aware that 3D programs handle normal maps differently, and I think that with the Gimp normal map plugin you have to set the ¨ invert Y¨ parameter on. Well, just try it out, and if the bumpiness of the surface is inverted when you render it in Blender, just play around with the invert values.
Hereis a kind of manual of the PLugin for Gimp.
I read a great tutorial on creating normal maps some time ago, but i can´t remember where I saw it. The tutorial described a great way of creating detailed normal maps out of bump maps. Basically the technique consisted of:
creating several overlapping layers of the bump map in Gimp.
assigning the ¨Overlay¨ blending mode to the layers.
converting the layers to normal maps with the plugin.
Bluring the layers so that you can simulate more ¨Volume¨. So, let´s say you created 5 layers, you go to layer 5 and apply a Gaussian blur with a value of 5 pixels, then you go to layer 4 and apply a Gaussian blur with a value of 4 pixels and so until you get to the top layer. You don´t have to apply any blur to the top layer, so that it keeps its sharpness. Well, then you save the image and that´s it, you have a normal map created out of a bump map, but with much more detail in it.
This is the tutorial.
But there is a much better solution, Insane Bump. But it requires a little fiddling around to install, but the again, its worth it.
http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=169973&sid=feb89ad8a8662b872abd9d8a8f32edf0
I will soon make an “Advanced Blender Texturing Tutorial”, have patience…
thanks for the normal map suggestion, that was a good one!- but Im still having a problem with it- check the church rendered with the same setting but from different cameras angles- in the first pic the front looks flat, and the second once I have shifted the camera, and now the sides look flat and lifeless- which is a problem if im doing animation and cant setup lights everytime I change camera positions
Mmmm…try disabling MipMap in the texture parameters. It seems to me that Blender is blurring the texture because of mipmapping…
Thanks for the Insane Bump tip Guiseppe!
No problem. Here is my “How to install Insane Bump Tutorial”: 
Insane bump seems not to be updated anymore. But it is still highly functional, this is how to install on a windows based system
First download this:
http://www.mediafire.com/?l63h9yxxott
Then download the update:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ind45ovodq3/InsaneBump.exe
Newest Gimp release (download please):
Now, we want to install Insane Bump, WITH the newest Gimp release (Insane Bump requires, and operates only from The Gimp), this is a little tricky:
Run the Insane Bump installer (Not the update, make sure to name them seperately)
The installer will now ask you to install a shitload of python stuff, accept all of this, but DONT install the gimp being packaged with Insane Bump (Just press cancel when it asks you to install). After installing everything else, restart your computer (this is crucial)
Then install the latest Gimp release, BUT, remember to press Customize Installation, and remember to check the “GIMP Python Extension”
After this, install the “Insane Bump Update”, make sure the directories of your gimp, and python installs are applied correctly in the installer!
Now you are ready to use INSANE BUMP!
It runs by opening Gimp, its located (In 2.6) under Filters -> Python-Fu -> Test -> Insane Bump. Run it. A popup will appear, and an input for texture directory is at the top. For me, it only works on my C: drive, and it will only work with PNG or Targa filetypes.
So convert your Texture (In Gimp now that you have it Just open, and do a Save As, select PNG or TGA extension) Save it at the Desktop or a folderpath you can remember.
Input your path to the texture, ex. “C:\Documents and Settings\Louisx\Desktop\Insane” without the quotes.
Im not giving you a detailed instruction set ( a complete tut is comming later ) but for starters ONLY the “Edge Enchancing Specular” button should be checked, the rest is for advanced users.
Then press “Ok”
Navigate to you texture folder, and Insane Bump should have created about 10 textures.
The ones you should be using is
texturename_d (D for diffuse, map to “Col”)
texturename_n (N for normal, map to “Nor”, keep the nor slider low, remember its “Tangent Space”)
texturename_s (S for Specular, map to Spec)
The rest is only for advanced users, but you can guess the names… h for Heightmap.
Phew! Hard work, but it pays off, the maps from insane bump are outstanding!
For Linux: (I only have windows, so figure out)
http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=30200&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30
EDIT: Sorry for jacking your post 
i just got carried away.
Bump and normal mapping works by altering the normals according the the LIGHT, so you have to experiment with some more lightsources, try adding some with No Specular pressed, that way it wont interfere with the general light direction.
Hi everybody!
I am new here, but I work with blender a for a while. Now I have a huge problem, but “maybe” I am the lame:D.
So I created a text and converted it into a mesh. Added a normal map, and everything was alright, until I started to move(animate) it. The problem is that the position of the normal map is different in every frame. It looks like if the text was a mask and I can only see the map though it from always an other direction. Maybe if the map was moving always on the mesh. I can not fix the problem, and don’t know why is it doing that. If anybody would be as kind as to help, I would really appriciate it! If my description is not understandable I will link here the short animation to see the problem. Really annoying…
thank you for your help!
nieghel
So here is a short peace of the problem I was talking about:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/1o2yga
PLEASE!!! somebody tell me what is the problem.
(33.png looks best. )
In the ¨Map Input¨ panel you should set the texture to be mapped to UV or ORCO. Check that out. How did you create your normal map?
That’s how normal maps work apparently.
Something about grazing angles and light reflecting off the actual geometry.
If you end up with an inverted normal map all you have to do is press the ‘nor’ button a second time or until it turns yellow and then blender will invert the displacement for you.
I’ll have to check out that Insane Map to see if there’s any code I can pilfer for my normal map texture node.
jpbouza!
map intput is set to orco, but still have the problem. I rendered this little text animation with yafaray, and after I recreated this without yafaray, the problem has gone. So yafaray was the guilty one! Next question: Does anyone know what is the problem, and how can I solve this?
Stone bump map: I found it on the web with google!
This was it:
