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Normal Map Question

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi,

I’ve been watching some basic tutorials that explain how to create normal maps. I would like to make use of them, but there are some things I don’t quite understand.

I have a simple piece of a hard-edged model which I created in another program (Rhino). I imported it into ZBrush as a .OBJ file. It contains triangles and quads. The edges of it were originally quite sharp, so I converted it to a high-res dynamesh and applied some clay polish which rounded the edges nicely. So, now I’m wondering how I can create a low-res version of this that looks like the high-res dynamesh.

I experimented a bit with Decimation Master, which actually did quite a good job. But I’m still curious about normal maps. Is creating a normal map for this sort of thing possible? Would I get a better result with it? Obviously, there aren’t any lower subdivision levels for it, so does that mean it isn’t realistically possible?

#2

for creating a normal map, you usually need two things: a low res geometry with UVs (the target) and a high res geometry (the source).

there are many different ways and tools to create normal maps; the disadvantage with zbrush is, that there is always a “connection” between the lowres and the highres, as the highres has to be a subdivided version of the lowres.

there are other tools, that don´t need this kind of connection; i prefer xnormal - very ugly interface, very neat tool

i hope that some day zbrush will feature baking an arbitrary highres into an arbitrary lowres.

so what you could do is use the “simple piece of a hard-edged model” as a lowres, use the dynamesh as the highres, bring both together in xnormal and bake out your normal map. (tangent space preferred)

#3

Thanks, Michael, I’ll give XNormal a try.