My first model.

if i recall it’s due to the low poly mesh being outside or inside the distance parameter for normal mapping generation
you’ll need to adjust the value up so that the geometry in completely encompassed
i’m not sure where it is in 2.5 or what the name of the setting is

ok so i can sculpt outward but sculpting inward causes those holes in the normal map?

Well, if thats the case I will just contiune to paint them out in photoshop.

So it turned out some kind of clipping on my low poly model was causing the issue, so I am going to move stuff around rather then try to paint it in photoshop.

you don’t need to edit your mesh, you just need to change the value for distance on the normal map generation
say the normal map only captures things that are 3 mm from the surface, but your mesh is 4mm away, it treats it as tho it’s not there
the reason for the value in the first place is to prevent capturing of other surfaces, like captuing the arm on the torsos normal map, or the hand on the legs normal

Thanks for the information, I think i know what you mean but not sure what to do in blender to fix it.

here is the blend file if someone would like to see if they have better luck then me.

http://www.mediafire.com/?2yitmmzzmnw

Being my first model on my own it has a bunch of beginner mistakes but thats the learning process. The high and low models are on 2 different layers so you gotta move them over to do the normal mapping, atleast i think you do and i move them both to layer one before i try anything.

if you take that normal map into PS or GIMP, select the black, delete it, and add a layer underneath that’s R .5 G .5 B 1, that would look better where you have holes.

Wasa, i was able to adjust the bias setting and it did help the holes. Still messing with it to get it perfect. Thanks for the advice.

I’ll give it a try thanks.

Ok, so its normal mapped, now still working on the texture and bump mapping. here is a test shot of it so far jsut to see how it looks before i go to far on the textures.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/MustangChris/seacreaturetex.jpg

textures are coming along but still need a lot of work.

It sucks the game model can’t look as sweet as the high detail model.

game model
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/MustangChris/seacreaturetex3.jpg

high detail model
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/MustangChris/seacreaturetex3high.jpg

It’s looking good. In the render baking buttons, there is a value for distance. If this value is too small, bits that are further away than the specified distance do not get factored into the calculations. That is why you have the odd patches on your normals map. Increasing this value will fix the problem.

What exactly is this creature? Looks like a fish-dog… Really good!!! Maybe you could give it some wiskers like a catfish? It looks awesome though!!

It looks great! I wish more people would do creatures like this more often than other things. Is there any chance you can post a rendered image?

It is a fish dog mix. The wiskers could look cool but I am calling the model done, now I am busy with the textures and shaders. Appreciate teh compliment.

Thanks, I can do a render, but I can’t figure out how to move the camera, i can move it but can’t pivot to see from a better angle…

Also, I am still working on the shaders so it might not look like it should.

I don’t know if I am doing it right, i havn’t done any tutorials on rendering yet so i dunno.

Wow interesting… Really good stuff , not “first model good”, I mean really good :smiley:

brilliant! my first model was… or at least tried to be… a cube! lol jk

My first model was actually made out of meta balls… I didn’t like the meshes since they didn’t have that sort of strange almost magnetic attraction.

Is there a chance you could point me toward the 25 vid youtube tutorial that you followed? Very nice work.