My First Normal Mapped Modell

[sasquotschi]

Hey all,

this is, as the title says, my first normal mapped 3d modell. i think the normal map looks pretty crap ;) but i have no idea why. especially the front right edge looks like it is seperated with smoothing groups but it isn't.
perhaps you can help me. i'm using 3dsmax 2011.
The modell is a german army ammo crate.

[cobra6]

Well....How did you produce the normal map? Because that looks like there is some kind of smoothing on that edge. The rest looks nice.

Cobra 6

[sasquotschi]

well, i produced it with the render to texture tool in max. I used the projection modifier to project the high poly model to the low poly model..
used the method, described here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFSXtjFI9ig

[cobra6]

In the map itself you can see there is some darker stuff going on around the edges of what appears to be the side of the crate. What I recommend you do is this:

If you have photoshop (or another image editor), open the image in it. Select the basic blue colour you see in between UV'ed parts. Now colour everything that does not need deformation in that colour. This will get rid of the weird smoothing, but is just a dirty hack in that sense.

As far as why it does this: Did meshes overlay when you projected the maps? I've not got experience with it because I've never used this particular method myself.

Cobra 6

[sasquotschi]

yeah my mesh overlay look quite good. and the smoothing too. therefore i have no idea where those errors could come from.

[cobra6]

No I mean when projecting, do you have the lid closed or open or separate from the mesh. Don't know if this might give errors.

Look at it like it is Ambient Occlusion bake, if the lid is closed some areas will be black when baking due to the overlay (shadow). Perhaps smoothing and baking normal maps suffers from something similar when projecting its rays.

Cobra 6

[sasquotschi]

i'll try :)

[cobra6]

Try detaching the lid and put it next to the box, see how that works?

Cobra 6

[sasquotschi]

yeah i already did it before. i did some kind of "explosion drawing" ;) but the problem: i didn't but the lid besides the box instead of that i moved the lid upwards over the crate ^^

[Matroskin]

yes, not really good normal map...
u'd better check on polycount wiki for that:

http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap

[Asparagin]

Beginner question: does a normal map override the smoothing groups assigned?
So in other words, if you have a normal map, you can forget the smoothing groups?

[cobra6]

Yes I think so... The normal map has it's own "smoothing groups" if you may.

Cobra 6

[Asparagin]

Thought so, thanks.