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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 14th Jul 2014 at 3:25 PM
Normal mapping a skin
Okay, so I think the title explains the question better than me. I just need help with normal mapping (If you want to give me tips about specular mapping on the way you're more than welcome), things like tips, tutorials, what program to use and how....
I'm trying to use Blender for this merely because help is very accessable for me concerning this program, so if you know a better or easier way for normal mapping a ts3 skin, I will be happy to hear about it.
This is the first skin that I ever made, so I just finished learning how to edit the texture and now I want to do the mapping- also starting from scratch- so please keep in mind that I'm a noob (I'm making a non-default, if it matters)
I would be great to get help here in the forum, but if you have the time and power for it it would be even better to get more personal and detailed help via email, messages, skype or whatever is comfortable for you.
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#2 Old 14th Jul 2014 at 3:54 PM
Normal mapping is gonna be a lot more a matter of texturing than 3D, so I don't know that Blender's gonna be useful or even helpful to you. What I did when I did the normal mapping for my Idola3 skin was to use the (amazing) Buhudain normal maps as a base and then modify it to my liking. Photoshop was super useful for this, as the newer versions have the ability to paint directly on a 3D model - so I'd import the TS3 body model, and then apply the normal map and be able to paint directly on it rather than looking at a UV map and the model and guessing. Also meant seams are a minor annoyance rather than a huge pain in the ass.

I'd suggest just looking at some normal maps - mine, Buhudain's, EA's, ones by others (dunno of others, but they're probably out there) to see how things are laid out. Examine the textures to see how they achieve the look you see in-game with them. Just because you want to make your own from scratch doesn't mean you can't look at how it's already been done, and I think you'll learn a lot.

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Test Subject
Original Poster
#3 Old 14th Jul 2014 at 5:11 PM
Quote: Originally posted by HystericalParoxysm
Normal mapping is gonna be a lot more a matter of texturing than 3D, so I don't know that Blender's gonna be useful or even helpful to you. What I did when I did the normal mapping for my Idola3 skin was to use the (amazing) Buhudain normal maps as a base and then modify it to my liking. Photoshop was super useful for this, as the newer versions have the ability to paint directly on a 3D model - so I'd import the TS3 body model, and then apply the normal map and be able to paint directly on it rather than looking at a UV map and the model and guessing. Also meant seams are a minor annoyance rather than a huge pain in the ass.

I'd suggest just looking at some normal maps - mine, Buhudain's, EA's, ones by others (dunno of others, but they're probably out there) to see how things are laid out. Examine the textures to see how they achieve the look you see in-game with them. Just because you want to make your own from scratch doesn't mean you can't look at how it's already been done, and I think you'll learn a lot.


Thank you, I'll look for some normal maps to learn from.
Do you know if there is a way to do what you did with Paint.net? The dds plugin for GIMP (which I need for opening the normal maps) doesn't work on my computer and I'd like to see all the options before I pay for a program that I hardly know how to work with...
Sockpuppet
#4 Old 14th Jul 2014 at 9:56 PM
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