Normal Map Workflow in 3dsMax

[wewyllenium]

I will try this. :D

[Cookie18PL]

Still doesn't work. I've got max 2012.

[DJEddieStar]

"Now that's pretty sexy"

I agree.

Thanks.

[monopita]

very helpful, thanks a lot for sharing

[reconleader07]

3:59 XD

You just said what it does after you said you didnt know what it does

[iceblazer17]

@reconleader07 :)

[MHStudios001]

also its faster to use shift+Q to render and your mouse well to zoom.

btw Nice Vid helped a lot

[iceblazer17]

@MHStudios001 Thanks for adding some knowledge to the video post! I appreciate it.

And thank you, I made this back in 2007 :P I am glad it can be useful to those who want to learn.

[MHStudios001]

use X to turn on and off your gizmo

[kitth3]

Nice tut ;)

But isn't it easier to make normal maps with Photoshop?

[Videshi2001]

Awesome tutorial, thank you!

[BoshkoSavich]

Thanks man a LOT

[iceblazer17]

@BoshkoSavich Glad it could help!! 

[TorQueMoD]

No problem guys. Its hard to keep track of everything when making tutorials. iceblazer17 did an awesome job with this video but you're bound to miss something. Glad I could help the rest of you.

[AtonEDBD]

Ahh dude! You just lifted a load off my shoulders! I've been getting rubbish looking normals in my renders! I've been selecting "Bitmap" instead of normals in the bump slot! DO'H! Thumbz Upz, 0% doubt ;) Thanks, man!

Now I'm gonna ogle my futuristic bin with good normals...

[TheGo2dark]

Tanks very much man! Good job as well.

[ZeusGYD]

Thanks very much for taking the time to put this tut together. I realize you posted it last year but I just came across it and it's just what I had been looking for. It was easy to follow and quite helpful. Thanks again!

[iceblazer17]

@ZeusGYD I am glad it could help! :) Thank you for the kind words, they are much appreciated!

[ZeusGYD]

Thanks very much for taking the time to put this tut together. I realize you posted it last year but I just came across it and its just what I had been looking for. It was easy to follow and quite helpful. Thanks again!

[TorQueMoD]

You failed to mention a couple of things in your tutorial because you had already played with the settings previously. Firstly, by default under mapping coordinates it sets "Automatic Unwrapping" on. This is not good as it will create a really bad unwrap and completely ignore your UVWs. Took me a while to figure out.

Also, under Selected Element common settings, target map slot should be set to Bump. This way after the render, it will automatically place the normal map into the bump slot.

[iceblazer17]

@TorQueMoD Thanks for sharing the missing info! :)

[dneobr]

@iceblazer17 you can put anotations in the video..! Thanks!

[shiideslan]

@TorQueMoD

Thanks a bunch for pointing that out, I got stuck with Max making new unwraps.. I was about to kill something, but now I'm happy again :)

[AtonEDBD]

@TorQueMoD Hmmmm.... gonna steal that piece of info from you... sorry *shrug*. ^_^

Thanks for adding that! I always had stoopeed automatic unwrap causing terrible, terrible normals.

Ended up always using xNormal. Live and learn.

[Cookie18PL]

@TorQueMoD Damn, i tried to do as you say and I've got still auto mappin. What am I doin wrong? ;/

[TorQueMoD]

@Cookie18PL

Its still automatically unwrapping your mesh even after selecting your unwrap in the coordinate sets? Can't help you there. It shouldn't. You have already unwrapped the model yes?

[Cookie18PL]

@TorQueMoD Yes. I did everything link in video. I'll try again on new model. :)

[pashkakul]

LOL

[Wasper216]

Jeez, could you please stop blowing into your mic the next time you do a video?

[iceblazer17]

@Wasper216 Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

[Wasper216]

@iceblazer17

I mean your videos are great and really helpful. But when I turn up the volume to understand you better, your breath is like an explosion ;)

[bombermanx82]

hello can you help me?

what about the ray miss? I have some part of my model without the projection..the cage is perfect and the high poly is prfectly fitting with the low.. help!!

[iceblazer17]

@bombermanx82 Can you be more specific?

[iceblazer17]

@bombermanx82 It will do this if you have geometry intersecting the area of the cage. Example would be if your cage does not have all of the high poly model information included in it. Or if the cage is projecting into empty space, that could cause errors. Also other types of geometry intersecting the cage that are not part of your bake. I would have to look at the model file to see. If you want, email it to me and I can take a look for you.

[bombermanx82]

@iceblazer17 I sent you email!

[bombermanx82]

hello can you help me?

what about the ray miss? I have some part of my model without the projection..the cage is perfect and the high poly is prfectly fitting with the low.. help!!

[ade2007ade]

I see, is there an alternative to retopologizing? I'm trying to bake my weapons and they hav lots of parts. I still have the low and high poly versions though

[ade2007ade]

so the high poly object must be "larger" than the low poly version?

[iceblazer17]

@ade2007ade What does the word "larger" mean exactly? More polygons? larger scale in scene? larger in size compared to the low poly object?

[ade2007ade]

@iceblazer17

Sorry i meant larger in size compared to the low poly object, my normals come out like crap for the most part, I have only been able to successfully normal map a dice :|

[iceblazer17]

@ade2007ade SO basically, you want your high poly to fit as closely to the low poly as possi ble. this is when programs like topogun come in handy. The overall goala is to easily fit your high poly model into the cage that is being projected form the low poly model. Hope this helps.

[LuckyNinja99]

I have a question: with your model, when you rendered to texture, you only rendered one side, so I'm presuming that on the other side of the model, it's bumped slightly differently. If this is the case, how do you go about making a a bump for a multi-sided object? My example is the grip for a gun I've modelled. I want to bump the details on both sides, but one side is always in black.

[LuckyNinja99]

@LuckyNinja99 never mind what I said, I am an idiot. Okay, much obliged for the tutorial iceblazer :)

[iceblazer17]

@LuckyNinja99 You must unwrap you rmodel properly. If all of the faces on your low poly mesh have their own pixel space in your UVW map then you should not get this problem.

[NeRai82]

Thank you for the Smoothing Group suggestion - I was wondering why my maps were coming out all weird and boxy!

[iceblazer17]

@NeRai82 No problem, I remember having the same problem when I first started :P

[xXxBladeStormxXx]

Sexy tutorial!

[roxonogueira]

for some time I had a little issue with this... I had a lot of seams displaying with the normal map. I just discovered that if you are using gamma correction and then import the normal with the system gamma you get awful shadows that divide themselves in the UV seams... SO if you run into this issue it's mainly because your image gamma is 2.2 instead of 1.0

cheers

[Allingby]

@roxonogueira Thankyou so much! Googling "3ds max gamma normal map" got me here...

[roxonogueira]

@Allingby I'm glad it helped... I googled that too and didn't find any help...

[sabz2011]

Got ma 3d model ready but not sure where to start from, I want to apply texture, normal map, opacity, specular and diffuse map, can any one please tell me what should be applied first? does normal comes first or the texturing n other maps?, I have finished unwrapping my model.

[NeRai82]

@sabz2011 I recommend you start with your colour ('Diffuse') map and building your other maps off that, unless you're going by the hi-poly to lo-poly method in this tut. In which case, you should look into doing the normal map bake first, and then you could look into doing an Ambient Occlusion Map as well :)

[ade2007ade]

I made a high poly weapon with several objects, do I just group them together? or must they be attached?

[iceblazer17]

@ade2007ade Well basically the object you are normal mapping can only project data from one other selected mesh. So I am guessing that you have a lot of intersecting parts on a weapon...try baking the different parts separably from one another and then composite all the Normal maps into one UV map in Photoshop later. Its hard to say without looking at the model.

[Erilis666]

Very fast and comprehensive tutorial, and I appreciate you using a real and practical model that is closer to something people would actually be working with.

[FierceMods]

Anyone willing to help me with getting this UV crap to work. HELP is greatly appreciated for our game.

[gallion311]

Great tutorial man, but a quick question: What if your UV's are stretched to tile? Would that screw up the Render to Texture stuff? In other words, can you use tiling in the UVWs or does it pretty much have to be all contained in the UV area?

[iceblazer17]

@gallion311

Great question man! Sometimes it is easier to create a UVW layout that is not on the normal 0-1 scale. sometimes with large environment peices it is eaiser to have a 2048x1024 texture so you are not giving different objects different vexel space than others in the scene.

With that said, I am not sure in 3dsMax, but I think in Maya you can click Image > Use Image Ratio and change the ratio to see the UV's in a square aspect ratio. Look for an option like this in max. goodluck!

[Mankkubus]

Avatar used every single 3D software

But mostly Maya

[LiquidEnvy]

thank you, this saved my life.

[iceblazer17]

@LiquidEnvy glad it could help mate! 

[goljdi]

Avatar is not "done" in 3ds max! (it's used only for some production parts). For such movie U need a hell of everything, and it surely isn't 3000$. Read a bit before U make such statement.

[polygonfreak]

Max 2.5 Star has to do with the sampling... it takes the center of the pixel and then averages it with two samples on the top and two on the bottom. Its named max 2.5 Star becuase it was first introduced in 3ds max version 2.5. Sorry had to be a nerd, good tutorial by the way.

[iceblazer17]

@polygonfreak Thanks a lot! That is awesome information, thanks for sharing! =)

[gshauger]

Thanks for the tutorial! I applied your steps to my own project and it worked like a champ.

[iceblazer17]

@gshauger Awesome! Glad to hear it! =)

[Gibbagobba]

i cant believe 3ds max is over 3000 dollars! did you guys know the cgi in Avatar was made with it?

[iceblazer17]

@Gibbagobba That is chump change for most studios...

[offline65]

@Gibbagobba

3000 dollar? Thats only the tip of the iceberg dude:D

If u wana make characters and some simple things than its just 3k dollar:)

If u wana make something serious than u will need plug-ins also:D

Personally i have the base program and 5 plug-ins ( Dreamscape / Afterburn / V-ray / Fume FX / Realflow )and that costed me almost my life.

But it worths paying for it.

[mostro32]

Thanks A lot man saved my life.

[togeux]

very good result!!!!

I heard good Xnormal^^

what is the difference?

baking nrm in max is better?

[iceblazer17]

@togeux I have ran tests in xNormal, ZBrush, Maya, and 3dsMax. Max's cage editor gives me the best results and I like 3dsMax the best. Glad it could help. 

[TheJohn0363]

best normal map tutorial on youtube, thank you very much, ive been looking for a long time to find one to teach it right, this is it, thanks again man.

[iceblazer17]

@TheJohn0363 no problem mate! glad it could help =)

[TheArkayProductions]

so if you don't animate it. what purpose does this have then ?

[nohj1000000]

@TheArkayProductions to teach others how to normal map.... its a tutorial, hes not making it for a use outside of the tutorial

[TheArkayProductions]

now how do you animate from here ?

[iceblazer17]

@TheArkayProductions Well, I would go find a tutorial...This doesn't really have anything to do with animation.

[TheArkayProductions]

@iceblazer17 ow sorry XD

[alex0jrc]

Thank you.

[iceblazer17]

@alex0jrc no prob! hope it helped.

[iceblazer17]

@alex0jrc no prob! =)

[studioedgeloop]

Great tutorial!

I don't know why this subject is so neglected by the commercial tutorial providers.

[Paul1985z]

Brilliant tutorial, very helpful and well narrated! And yeah decent NM tutorials are hard to come by, so you've been a great help.

[KnightCrawler2]

Awesoem tut thx man!

[iceblazer17]

@KnightCrawler2 no worries, thanks!

[Ockniel]

Great tutorial, helped me out a ton

[iceblazer17]

@Ockniel Awesome to hear! =)

[wildwoolygoat]

Great video dude; i've always wondered how people make normal maps but it seems to hard find a decent video on it until now.

Thanks for the good tutorial on it.

[iceblazer17]

@wildwoolygoat No problem, I am glad it could help. Its a simple process and texture baking is used for a lot more things these days...

[r4jk3]

thanks for a great tut man!

[iceblazer17]

Hey no prob. It is a bit old, but I want to make more of them.

In my opinion, knowledge should be free if your willing to learn!

[iceblazer17]

@r4jk3 No problem, glad it can help!