garretthoyos

I don't know why, but I've never successfully been able to import a normal map into houdini from zbrush or mudbox. I've had this issue for a year now, and I always just do bump instead. It works, but I'd rather have a tangent space normal map. Both tangent space and object space appear to screw up the lighting in Houdini renders. I'm using the mantra surface shader, default with houdini 13. Anyone know how to get this to work without the harsh edges on the shadows? Image 1 shows how the object looks with a normal map plugged in Image 2 shows how the object looks with "normal" selected from the drop down menu without the map being checked on. Image 3 shows how it looks without the normal option being selected from the drop down menu, just regular obj, no maps. Image 4 shows what I mean by "drop down menu" This is not the problem with the obj or the maps. They work fine in maya. Something weird is happening in Houdini. Thanks!!!

I figured it out. I was putting the nodes in the wrong order. This solved it.

Thank you for the reply. I think my biggest question really is about mixing Normals into the derivative of S or T. It uses the S or T value that comes out of the box and not the one that comes from my UVs. I want to find the edges of the object but there are places where it looks bad.

Hey I'm having a strange issue. I modeled a fosset to shade but the S & T are just strange. I'm confused since I thought S and T were suppose to have everything to do with the UV map 0-1 space. However, here (see image) I am getting some strange results which cause my shader to appear almost at random. I dropped in a perfect asset (shirt geometry) that works perfectly in production when I textured and shaded it, but as soon as I plug in the S into the color ouput of the material shader builder it appears super strange. I'm confused at why I'm getting these results. Thanks