Normal Mapping inside of Maya

This is a short tutorial on how to produce a normal map within Maya. It is also intended to be a very simple way to familiarize a person where normal maps are produced within Maya.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Maya
• 3D
• Polygons
• Normal
• Mappping

[nameno1elsehas]

thanks for clearing that up, but what is the difference between a normal map and a bump map? could you please clarify? thanks

[PolyNurb]

Well there's quite a few differences, bump maps are grayscale textures, with I believe 256 shades of gray value, to basically fake the appearance of detail on a polygon surface. A normal map is an RGB map with thousands or millions of color values in it, so you can get quite a bit more detail in a normal map. Normal maps perturb the surface normals, so that light bounces off of it as if there were geometry details on a surface. Bump maps do something similar only with far less detail.

[nameno1elsehas]

@PolyNurb so if you applied a normal map to an object like the one in your vid, would the bolts on the mapped object project shadows?

[PolyNurb]

@nameno1elsehas Yes they do cast shadows, and they also receive specular highlights, and shade just as if it was actual geometry.

[ksisneh]

gr8 tutor

[PolyNurb]

@ksisneh Why thank you, I try to do my part in passing on the knowledge I have.

[1000beasties]

Great tutorial, thanks

[aj2jjworld007]

sir very good tut. really help me...

[Brygelsmack]

Hey, I'm making a cog in Maya. I have a high poly and a low poly model in my perspective viewport. Can I use this technique for the normal map?

[Anhslaught]

Hi, I followed the tutorial just right, but my normals come out really dark. The only way I could see it is if I turn on lighting, and set a bright light on it. What am i doing wrong?

[SilverGunZoO]

except alpha map, I had no idea what a map is, now I understand what a normal and bump map is thanks to you

[BlueVane]

I'm suddenly getting very worried about my upcoming College course in 3D Animation!