Normal map refuses to align properly, I've no idea why

Support Materials and Textures
1

Hello! I’m a newbie to Blender, and also to 3D modeling. Today was my second day with Blender, and it was a productive one. I spent the day making a pumpkin, and then, making a high-poly version of a pumpkin to turn into a normal map. As far as I can tell this went okay, but… Now, whenever I try to apply the normal map to my low-poly pumpkin.

Here’s what I get:

1178×761 269 KB

Note that the UV Map node was one of my (failed) attempts to fix this issue. I’ve checked the UVs (they appear aligned), and the only modifier i have on the pumpkin is a subsurface. Really I wouldn’t even begin to know what to describe that could help with diagnosing this issue.

.blend file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1R7MRoQI0tTV_5pFVBqJbgktyUYdIotkS

2

With no pictures and no .blend file we can’t even begin to guess.

3

Yup. I remembered that viewports existed and uploaded a shot of me views, and further have added a link to the file to the original post.

4

The actual normal map is missing from the file.

5

I really don’t know how to make the file have it. All I can really think to do is save it with the image loaded in, and that clearly didn’t work.

6

File->External Data->Pack all into .blend.

7

Original post edited.

8

The good news is that the normal map is applied correctly.

The bad news is that it’s just a very weird and very strong normal map which has probably been poorly baked.

9

Hrm. I baked it at basically the minimum I could without getting green and brown sections. Would a cage help? I don’t really know what one of those is or how to use one.

Edit: Apparently I baked it at a lot higher than the green and brown sections by mistake. It’s still turning up weird though.

10

There’s no high poly in the file, so I have honestly no idea.

11

Yeeeah, the high-poly swells up the filesize like fifteen times, and I’ve very got slow internet, so I don’t think I can do much there, sadly. At the very least, this is what it’s supposed to look like:

edit: oh. turns out it wasn’t updating my normals upon successive bakings. it’s looking a little better now.

12

Your normal map shows extreme gradients. Some thoughts after review:

  • Geometry should not have smoothing angles over 90 deg (autosmooth)
  • Your geometry should not have Ngeons as different software interprets them with different smoothing due to automatic triangulation
  • Highpoly and lowpoly geometry should match a bit better. You can use “smooth” operator or modifier on your lowpoly and it will do most of the work.
  • Make sure that HIGHPOLY object does not share material with Lowpoly as you had normal map affect high poly also.
  • Make sure to read in normal in LINEAR space, Normal map is not sRGB

In short, you should work a bit on your lowpoly so it conforms better to HP and does not have very sharp angles.

Tip: As you bake in Blender, the key is to start with smaller texture size, something like 256x256. That way you can quickly rebake as you find optimal settings.

Overall good job! Baking is always confusing :slight_smile:

Here’s some settings:

2_6222018_ec00.jpg1641×814 158 KB

Hope it helps.

13

When unwrapping the low poly mesh, make sure to check ‘Use Subsurf Modifier’ or just apply the subsurf modifier.

14

Hello! I’ve taken advice from both of you, and have also further tweaked the sculpting on my hipoly model to reduce some of the more extreme geometry the baker has to deal with. It helped, but I can’t seem to avoid having a few heavy artifacts. However, I think I’m at a point where I can just open this thing up in an image editor and remove those by hand. Thanks!