Tangent space normal map baking from two object space normal maps
- August 20, 2012
- 224 Downloads
- 0 Likes
- Blender 2.6x
- Render: Blender Internal
- Creator: der_On
- License: CC-0
Description:
In this blend you'll find a node setup to bake a tangent space normal map from two object space normal maps.
Within the compositor node setup you find a group that has two image inputs: first for the low poly object space normal map, second for the high poly object space normal map. The output is a tangent space normal map from the difference of the input normal maps.
This only works if the low poly and high poly normal maps share the same uv-layout, so things align correctly.
Why have I choosen this approach?
Because baking from high poly to low poly objects causes a lot of artifacts, like overlapping, misses, jaggy edges and so on. With this method you get rid of most of them without creating a manual bake cage.
Eventually you have to rebake the object space normal maps already present as the images "high" and "low" from the objects "high_poly" and "low_poly". Finally render the compositor view and use the result of the viewer node as the tangent space normal map.
Some hint on Color correction: at least on my system I have to turn color correction off, otherwhise the normal map colors are way to bright.
Comments:
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scottlee38
Written April 27, 2016Why have you not advertised this more? Its so much easier than building a cage and baking the normals. That usually creates errors for me. I just go done using this on a character in substance designer!
Very well-organized and works exactly as advertised. Thank you!