normal map from 3d-coat

[blonde]

Has someone successfully imported a normal map from 3d-coat in to houdini? I've found some shaders to import a normal map from zbrush but seems they works as a bump map, not a normal tangent displacement....I'm doing something wrong or missed something?

bye..

Edited February 10, 2011 by blonde

[thinkinmonkey]

Hi blonde,

you should use only worldspace normal map, not tangent space one, because Houdini can't handle them.

In 3DCoat you could use the Texture Baking Tool to export WorldSpace normal map or use XNormal program to convert tangent to world using the lowres mesh.

Anyway read this:

Received suggestion to my past post

[blonde]

Hi blonde,

you should use only worldspace normal map, not tangent space one, because Houdini can't handle them.

In 3DCoat you could use the Texture Baking Tool to export WorldSpace normal map or use XNormal program to convert tangent to world using the lowres mesh.

Anyway read this:

Received suggestion to my past post

Thanks, i'll try it asap.

And i think i've not to bother to flip y-normal diving in the mantrasurface shader...as this is only for z-brush or not?

[thinkinmonkey]

as this is only for z-brush or not?

You should try it and see what happens.

[blonde]

You should try it and see what happens.

That's what happens...with the mantrasurface shader, the normal map seems works but flatten my mesh and creates black scratches...

[thinkinmonkey]

For the black scratches, you should set "raytracing" in the mantra render node instead of "micropolygon".

Anyway, Mantra renders the normal/diffuse map quite well, maybe you're confusing the normal map with displacement map: normal maps don't displace the mesh at render time, that's a job of displacement map.

The normal maps are a fast alternative to the old black&white bump maps: both won't displace the mesh, they are used to "disturb" the geometry normals at render time (and in realtime but only the normal maps).

Edited February 17, 2011 by thinkinmonkey