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Advice on going about to create normal map for this rope/knot texture?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if someone with experience could advice me on how I can go about creating this. Basically, I want to create normal/alpha maps for this rope knot/pattern (I don’t need to mimick the microscopic fabric textures etc but just the larger shapes as I’ve highlighted in red).

rope-texture-q.jpg

I know one can create normal maps in Photoshop but is there a better software and process to do it? Do you all go by trial/error when creating normal maps or is there a software where I can get proper heights and curvature of rope etc? I would eventually want to unwrap a uv map for a geometry and create a texture map of rope pattern normal map, import it into zbrush and apply it to the geometry to generate the shapes.

Any advice/suggestions/links to resources/tutorials would be much appreciated. thanks

#2

Model the rope then bake the Geo to a flat plabe

#3

best to do that in zbrush or another modeler? would you have a link showing how to do something similar? doesn’t have to be a rope exactly

#4

I personally would do it in another software where you have greater control over distances so you can ensure a proper loop more easily. But if I had to do it in Zbrush I would just use zSphere chains.

#5

There are loads of ways to do that. In ZBrush, I would probably use an IMM Stitch brush to layer the ropes, then subdivide the whole thing and use an Alpha for the surface texture.