What is normal mapping ?

Submitted by Ninja on
Forum
Artists

Hi guys just want to ask what is normal mapping ? (please someone explain it in depth or point me to a website about it ?)

Ionized mentioned something about it can save time texturing when normal mapping is used ???? and also a different way of low poly modelling ?

Sorry im new to all these stuff just need to learn something new [:)]

cheers guys..... [:D]

Submitted by Malus on Fri, 25/07/03 - 4:14 AM Permalink

Its a complex thing to explain on one post, your best bet is to do a google search, tonnes of info on it.

Also visit www.polycount.com too they have a tonne of threads already answering this question.

Some normal mapping creation software for everyone to play with:

ATI normal mapper
http://www.ati.com/developer/tools.html

ORB
http://www.soclab.bth.se/practices/orb.html

Discreet normal render utility
http://sparks.discreet.com/downloads/downloadshome.cfm?f=2&wf_id=83
(registration required)

Mankua's Kaldera
http://www.mankua.com/kaldera.cfm

Mmmmm normal maps are our friends.

Submitted by Ninja on Sat, 26/07/03 - 12:21 AM Permalink

Thankx heaps malus [:D] some good information there .....

is there a normal Mapper for maya ??? for all you maya users out there ??

Submitted by J I Styles on Sat, 16/08/03 - 12:14 AM Permalink

To sum it up, it's surface data encoded into an image which is used for a models lighting.

The angle that a face points is called its normal. A normal map is taking a high res models normals, takes its XYZ, and encodes it into the three colour channels RGB - each pixel in a channel can represent a value of 0-255. This map is used with per pixel lighting to illuminate the low poly model with the surface detail of the original high poly model.

That, in a nutshell, is what it's about. Take a normal map into photoshop, and look at the RGB channels seperately. You'll see what I mean.

Submitted by Ninja on Sat, 16/08/03 - 12:43 AM Permalink

Thank you very much J.I that makes more sense......the links that malus gave me are really good too.....[:D]

chris... [:)]

Submitted by Malus on Sat, 16/08/03 - 9:13 AM Permalink

lol, yeah thats it.
Guess I was just being lazy, nice job on concisely explaining that Mr Styles, would have taken me tonnes of paragraphs. [:P]

Posted by Ninja on
Forum
Artists

Hi guys just want to ask what is normal mapping ? (please someone explain it in depth or point me to a website about it ?)

Ionized mentioned something about it can save time texturing when normal mapping is used ???? and also a different way of low poly modelling ?

Sorry im new to all these stuff just need to learn something new [:)]

cheers guys..... [:D]

Submitted by Malus on Fri, 25/07/03 - 4:14 AM Permalink

Its a complex thing to explain on one post, your best bet is to do a google search, tonnes of info on it.

Also visit www.polycount.com too they have a tonne of threads already answering this question.

Some normal mapping creation software for everyone to play with:

ATI normal mapper
http://www.ati.com/developer/tools.html

ORB
http://www.soclab.bth.se/practices/orb.html

Discreet normal render utility
http://sparks.discreet.com/downloads/downloadshome.cfm?f=2&wf_id=83
(registration required)

Mankua's Kaldera
http://www.mankua.com/kaldera.cfm

Mmmmm normal maps are our friends.

Submitted by Ninja on Sat, 26/07/03 - 12:21 AM Permalink

Thankx heaps malus [:D] some good information there .....

is there a normal Mapper for maya ??? for all you maya users out there ??

Submitted by J I Styles on Sat, 16/08/03 - 12:14 AM Permalink

To sum it up, it's surface data encoded into an image which is used for a models lighting.

The angle that a face points is called its normal. A normal map is taking a high res models normals, takes its XYZ, and encodes it into the three colour channels RGB - each pixel in a channel can represent a value of 0-255. This map is used with per pixel lighting to illuminate the low poly model with the surface detail of the original high poly model.

That, in a nutshell, is what it's about. Take a normal map into photoshop, and look at the RGB channels seperately. You'll see what I mean.

Submitted by Ninja on Sat, 16/08/03 - 12:43 AM Permalink

Thank you very much J.I that makes more sense......the links that malus gave me are really good too.....[:D]

chris... [:)]

Submitted by Malus on Sat, 16/08/03 - 9:13 AM Permalink

lol, yeah thats it.
Guess I was just being lazy, nice job on concisely explaining that Mr Styles, would have taken me tonnes of paragraphs. [:P]