How do you achieve bump and normals in blender?
How do you achieve bump and normals in blender?
(try to search the forum or look in the Blender Wiki Manual before posting a question. A few post down a similar question was asked)
Ok thanks, That really helped, now my only problem is how to make the maps. Still kinda confused on how to make them.
How to create bump-map textures - where to start…
If you allready have a image texture (Jpeg or whatever) it often works OK as a bumpmap aswell. If not, bring it into GIMP or PHOTOSHOP and see which channel (RGB or HSV) most closely resembles the bumpmap you have in mind. There are also some quite nice texture generators in Blender that are well worth playing with. The advantage of these is that they’re 3D rather than 2D so you don’t have the problem creating seamless UV maps.
Here’s an example of a Displacement map.
The sphere was subdivided rather heavily, and the displacement map on the right was applied to the surface. Usually the lighter the displacement map, the higher it is displaced. But I clicked the “Disp” button twice so it turned yellow. This inverts it so the lighter part is displaced lower.
There is a subtle difference between Nor Mapping (aka Bump Mapping) and Displacement Mapping. With Displacement, as can beseen in nyrathwiz’s image, the geometry displacement is real - it really does stick in and out from the mesh. However, with Nor Mapping (Bump Mapping), you only get the illusion of 3D surface geometry. When you look at an object with Nor Mapping applied, the perimeter will still look smooth.
NorMaps are computationally simpler though.
I will elaborate just a trifle on AndyD excellent explaination.
A Normal map can look just fine applied to a low polygon surface.
A Displacement map has to be applied to a high polygon surface or it looks just awful. Generally one uses a Displacement map on an object that has been subdivided a few times.
So a Displacement maps sends the total polygon count sky-high, which increases the rendering time. This is what AndyD meant when he said " NorMaps are computationally simpler though."