ZBrushCentral

normal maps and renderware

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I have a character to texture, I am asked to output the model with 4 texture channels: color, spec, bump and normal map.

I am using maya 6, testing with both Mental Ray and Maya rendering and I am not getting the expected results so…

Here are my questions:

Is it true that all UVs must be separate, with absolutly no overlaps (like we usually do in games)?

Is there a special lighting required?

As the normal map goes into the bump channel, is it ok to use a layered shader to combine bump and normal maps?

Thanks for any help!

#2

You’re right in that no overlap can exist. If you must have a model with overlapping UV’s, you’ll need to hide the polygons belonging to the overlap so that only one polygon goes to any UV part. (For example, if it’s a face then you can hide one half of the face.) Once all overlapping polygons are hidden, you can create the normal map.

No lighting is calculated into the creation process.

ZMapper (see the Roadmap to ZBrush 2.5 thread in the Main Forum) will allow you to create normal maps with the bump map baked in.