Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: Vraciu on December 26, 2016, 12:14:24 PM

Title: Normal Map - Process
Post by: Vraciu on December 26, 2016, 12:14:24 PM

Is a normal map itself just a single layer "purple" equivalent to a grayscale image?   Do I have to convert it from something else?  Can I edit a file using the same colors manually?

For example, can I take the default Normal map and edit portions of it then save it or do I need to convert it again?

By my thinking I should be able to change it directly within the file itself.   Am I missing something?

Title: Re: Normal Map - Process
Post by: Skuzzy on December 26, 2016, 12:37:07 PM

You can alter it directly.  It is just tricky to do.

Title: Re: Normal Map - Process
Post by: Greebo on December 26, 2016, 03:03:51 PM

The normal map is not a purple-coloured version of the bump map. The bump map shows the vertical dimension in 256 shades of grey, with white being highest and black lowest. The normal map shows both height and angle to the horizontal as a 3D image with in this case a light source coming from above and to the right. It is not practical to try and edit a normal map by hand, you have to edit the bump map and convert it using the appropriate software.

(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/Jonchaz/Aces%20High/AH3_Skinning_Tutorial_Maps_SC1_zpswxuyctsa.jpg)

Title: Re: Normal Map - Process
Post by: Vraciu on December 26, 2016, 11:39:44 PM

Both answers above were what I needed.

Thanks guys.

 :salute