Bump Mapping Tutorials

[IchI]

does anyone have any or know of any bump mapping tutorials for the 3dsmax 6? I am looking into trying it out to see what I can do and how it works. If anyone has any of knows of any it would I would be very apreshiated

:cheers:

(wow i just noticed this kewl new face)

:imu: :imu: :imu: :imu: :imu: :imu: :imu: :imu:

Muahahaha my army of imu's

 

[Short_Fuse]

Dont know any tutorials but i can give you some hints/tips.

Basically you export your texture maps like you would if you where to skin it. Paint it completly white and then paint the areas black you want bumped.

White is not bumped Black is bumped.

In the material editor scroll down to find Maps i think. Theres things like diffuse specular bump and so on. Actually specular works exactly the same way as bump. Now put a tick in the box, Bump and find your map and apply it. Then put the amount of bump you want. Easy as.

The detail on your map has to be quite clear as if you have random black dots or anything of the such it will bump it.

Thats bout it really. Just play around see what you get.

 

[PvtRyan]

Well, bumpmapping is in no way any different than normal UV skinning an object/character. Just that it uses only 2 colors and everything in between them to defin the bumpiness. White means the highest area, black the lowest.

This is what a common bump map looks like, just grayscale colors.

Normal mapping is a whole different subject, basically it consists of 4 channels, three color channels to define the facing direction (normal) of a polygon, for instance red is the X-axis (don't know if it is) and a grayscale channel for the height specification (like regular bump mapping). Don't know if this explanation of normal mapping is correct.

 

[IchI]

hmmm. so if u made a skin for a model. then set it to 2 colours and made it so that the normal map thought the black was low and the white was high. it would still apear 3d ? so infact u don't even have to model a very high polgon model?

 

[Short_Fuse]

Thats the point in bump mapping, adding tiny detail without any need for more polys. Also adds heaps of realism to models like humans.

So just uvw unwrap your model. Export two copys. Paint your texture put that in the diffuse slot of the material editor in max. Paint the other one white with the areas black you wished bump, like words lines details maybe a rough area on a model and such. And put that in the bump map slot in the material editor.

 

[FictiousWill]

Do you want bump or normal maps? If you want a great normal map generator for free, google 'orb'.

 

[The Dark Elf]

bump mapping uses grayscale, R0 G0 B0 is the lowest point R255 G255 B255 is the highest point. Bump mapping is good but only gives basic height information.

Normal maps use all three color channels, Red Green and Blue, each shade of each color represents a direction that polygon is facing. As such, creating a normal map from a bump map isn't very successful as the polygon normal information just isn't there. The only way to create a decent normal map is using the original objects geometry to create the normal maps via baking the normals onto a UV map.

Because of that, if you want to give the impression of objects being more detailed than they actually are, your best bet is normal maps. For smaller details, veins, groves etc. you can use regular bump maps. Though I don't know if the source engine will allow mixing the two types together or not.

Luminosity maps - similar to bump maps, only the brighter the color the more luminous it is, you could in HL1 use luminosity maps to generate light in a map thanks to the radiosity, which was handy if you didn't want to use regular lights.

Specular maps - similar again only the brighter a point is the more specular it is

Gloss maps - again the same, the darker it is at a point, the lower the gloss, the brighter it is the higher the gloss.. I don't know if Source uses these or not, but their very handy to have if it does

Diffuse maps - regulates the brightness of a surface, black is dark white is regular brightness. Good for giving textures a wet (when used with special spec maps) or dirty appearances etc.

Reflection maps - pretty sure these are used in the Source engine. Brighter a point the more reflective it is.

Overlay's - Thought these worth a mention since their going to be very useful, Basically decals but with more about them, can use all the regular mapping techniques I've heard. Which by the sounds of it makes these a very very powerful feature. Used to add randomness to a map, or special texturing. If they can use the above mapping types then puddles, or surface transition overlays (smoothing the transition between two types of surface without it looking lame) will be quite possible and pretty cool to see.

hmm what else is there. Well tons but of no use AFAIK to the source engine or to your original question, which I've managed to turn around.. erm... bump maps! there back on topic

 

[Jeremy]

HL2 uses normal maps I believe. Very similar to bumpmaps.

 

[FictiousWill]

...only not.

 

[IchI]

so what is the different between bump maps and normal maps?

 

[The Dark Elf]

so what is the different between bump maps and normal maps?

bump maps only do height, so a particular point can only be a different height, normal maps contain the direction the polygon normal is facing. So you can as shown in the XSI demo Valve did, create complex looking rock faces with normal maps, which you'd have a difficult job doing with just bump maps. If you hang on a bit I'll knock out an example of the two to show you.


Edit: cool, can add files in edit.. Ok here's an example of a normal map. I did it really low poly so you could see it clearer. The rendered images are nothing more than a flat texture mapped onto a single polygon, and a default distant light rotated around to give different light sources. The object used to create the normals were 294 polygons. So from 294 polys to 1 poly. Normal maps are cool eh?

 

[IchI]

kewl, so have anyone got an tutorials on making normal maps in 3dsmax?

 

[The Dark Elf]

one for Maya: http://www.drone.org/tutorials/displacement_maps.html

one for Max: http://www.mankua.com/kaldera_tut_gun.cfm

 

[clarky003]

simply put, when you select a material in Material Editor, ... say you open a custom bitmap for instance, its located in a list under maps(drop down box under the material Library swatches) , to bump map that material , simply click hold down and drag the name of the material in the list, down to the 'bumpmap box' (located near the bottom of the list, a small box comes up asking the relation of the bumpmap to the origional map... select 'Instant' ( so any changes to the material made, automatically update the bump map),,, then increase (o-100. or 200 or -200 etc) or decrease the number setting next to the box, (default, 100 /30) to gain the desired bump map effect. and then drag your new bumped material from the swatch onto your object in the view port.. I hope that it helps if you havnt already figured it ou

 

[phantomdesign]

Thanks for the link Fenric!!!

 

[Brian Damage]

Anyone know if you can do normal maps in Gmax?

 

[The Dark Elf]

Anyone know if you can do normal maps in Gmax?

depends what its surfacing capabilities are, if their similar enough to Max itself then there should be a way to do it

 

[Incitatus]

hmm as far as I remember gmax doesn't have a material editor

 

[Brian Damage]

I went and checked, and it does actually seem to. They keep upping the version, so maybe they added it recently.