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Generating and using normal maps in Maya
Tutorials > Rendering / Lighting > General
Generating and using normal maps in Maya
drone, added 2006-03-31 00:06:24 UTC 123,670 views  Rating:
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This technique can be very useful when preparing LOD objects from a high resolution one, for games or rendering optimisation, while keeping a maximum of visual similarity. Also as a final point, the best thing for game developers is that graphics boards of the latest generation can support real-time normal maps too!


Note : I got questions from several people asking wether it was sort of camera map and thus a � one view � only hack. No! The normals in the normal map are expressed in object space, thus they do not depend on the position of the object or camera in space.






We can observe here it still works quite well with vertex level deformations like skinning or blend shapes (5 successive frames of skeleton animation and one "stretch" blend shape.


However, freezing or deforming the object on vertex level will mess them (to see about expressing normal maps in � point � or � tangent � space check the spaceChange utility node).


Check here for updated info and a new faster way to retrieve normals and displacement maps : displacement_maps


Olivier Renouard

olivier@drone.org


Download the full package with scene files, images and Alias|Wavefront plugin : normal_maps.zip

Page 3 of 3

Author: drone
Submitted: 2006-03-31 00:05:46 UTC
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Software: Maya
Views: 123,670

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