I’ve created a normal map to add decently intense wrinkles to a jacket, and would like to add a design to the back of it now. Is it possible to distort the diffuse map using the already existing normal map to create a more convincing effect by stretching or shrinking parts of it?
I didn’t quite understand the question. 
Try Color Ramp
Or you can use materialize to create normal maps (free)
https://boundingboxsoftware.com/materialize/
You can also use an addon to convert to normal maps (free)
Sorry, I’m not very good at describing things.
I mean more along these lines. I already have the normal, and in this case a mock-up diffuse, what I’d like to see is if there is a way to distort the diffuse using the normal so it matches the wrinkles being made by the normal, creating an effect like the example. Be it with Blender itself, or if there is another way externally.
For clarity, the end goal is a way to save said distortion to the diffuse texture so it can be permanent.
You probably want to look in to cycles baking if you want to apply the final look to the texture it’s self.
I think I want to mix the Normal Map and the diffuse Map and use it as a Normal Map. 
- After converting the diffuse Map to a normal map (the method mentioned above), you can mix the normal and diffuse maps.
- You can mix Normal Map and diffuse Map, as in the image.
※ You cannot use the image of diffuse Map as it is, and you must use the Color Ramp node.
Both methods can be mixed using Mix nodes.
- If you want to save information about your modeling, try Baker.
That is possible (-ish), but with some heavy constraints.
The main problem is that normal maps aren’t a representative of a surface displacement, but of a surface orientation. (the surface sample doesn’t move, it’s just oriented in another direction).
The second problem is that the normal vectors are in world space, but you need them to be converted to tangent space, and that’s a pretty difficult thing to do!
Of course, if your object is laying in the XY plane, than you can make it work; But don’t expect any realistic results.
And after this, you need to bake the texture, because if you then move/rotate/animate your object, the distortion will start to ‘dance’.
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Thank you! I foresaw many reasons it wouldn’t work at all, so possible-ish with heavy constraints was more than enough for me! Lowering the strength of the normal gave a subtle enough effect to achieve what I wanted using this setup.
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