Normal Maps: Baking Creating & Correcting

In this tutorial Waniek will try to explain some techniques and show you how to bake and create normal maps, which become very popular in this days, specially in game industry.

Software used: zBrush, zMapper, Photoshop CS2

1. Introduction
In this tutorial I will try to explain some techniques and show you how to bake and create normal maps, which become very popular in this days, specially in game industry.

Software that I will use :
- Zbrush 2 – for baking normal maps from high poly models. Currently ver 3.1 of Zbrush is available, but the baking techniques are the same as in the ver 2.0.

For baking normal maps I will use a ZMAPPER plugin, which you can download for free from pixologic website - 3D studio max – this program I will use for modeling low poly models and UVW mapping. To do this you can use program whatever you want, because for baking purpose we will export the model to obj format. - Photoshop CS2 – I will use it for creating normal maps and editing baked maps.


2. What are normal maps, and what are their for?
The purpose of normal maps is to create an illusion of more complex geometry than it really is. Normal mapping doesn’t affect the geometry of the low poly model, like the displacement maps do. So if our low poly model is very simple and edgy, the normal map will not change it. Below you see a comparison of high poly model and a simple plane with normal map.



Mirror:

http://rapidshare.com/files/237155222/Normal_Maps.zip