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seams in normal map

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I need some help with normal mapping. I’ve spent the last several days researching online forums and trying out several different tutorials.

I’ve tried the zbrush to MAX tutorial here in the forums by Michael McCarthy & Scott Spencer, the translated zbrush to MAX tutorial by Dexter J. Doqpelganger and a bunch of others I found online. I’ve tried turning all uv’s around so they are all upright and read all the FAQ’s and tried all kinds of other ridiculous advice I found online. I even tried welding all the uvs which just totally distorted them, created a very messy normal map and would only cause more problems when I go to paint the model. I still cannot fix the problem I’m having with seams showing up in my normal map.

http://www.artbywaqas.com/normalmap/normal_map_problem.html

#2

Open the normal map in photoshop and flip the Green channel(Select Green channel and press Ctrl I).Apply it in max,I think u can solve the problem.

#3

For starters, looking at your model, I think you could UV that into one big shell. This would eliminate the first possible issue - seams.

Make sure the edges to the shell are rock solid straight and pixel snap them. Then see what it looks like.

Also check that the normal map is being generated as tangent and you are doing the same in Max. Dont forget to use the ZBrush ZMapper Max preset.

#4

trackZ - here’s the new result…

http://www.artbywaqas.com/normalmap/normal_map_problem_update.html

Is this as good as it gets?

jayantamazumder - You mean like this?

http://www.artbywaqas.com/normalmap/petal_dress_pelt_green_invert.jpg

#5

check your other thread, i posted in there. And to fix the “rough” areas around the seams, you need to hand paint those out. you can also try to use another program to capture your normals.

xnormal is great for things like this, free, and easy to use. It also has a built in DX9 and DX10 viewport rendering.

#6

Yeah, artbywaqas, thats a lot better…I personally don’t use pelt mapping as you can’t straighten those shell edges.

What I would do with your garment is do a cylindrical map (weld and heal the edges), get a straight seam and make sure the edge is rock solid straight, pixel snap it (load a bitmap into the UV editor when you do this though ;), then do a relax on the UVs inside, making sure to exclude the edges from the relax.

I go with goast as well, you have to do some cleanup in Photoshop. I use smudge to push away the nasty bleed you get on non straight edges.

Oh and same as goast…xNormal :wink: