bump, displacement and normal mapping

[Dave Buckley]

someone please shed some light, the first two i understand, but then i get comfused when it comes to normal mapping.

 

why, where and when would one use a normal map??

[Stephen Thomas]

Normal mapping is more commonly used in the gaming industry. The normal map is created from a high poly object then mapped onto a lower poly version of the same object. This workflow can also be applied to objects manipulated in Mudbox / ZBrush. Once you have sculpted the object you can extract the normal and displacement maps and apply them to the original low poly object in max to give it the appearance of the higher quality version.

 

The normal map basically stores all the normal information i.e. which direction the polygons are facing. Bump maps are usually created from images, normal maps are usually created from geometry.

[Dave Buckley]

thank you, so i need not to worry then when it comes to arch viz

[Nic H]

no do give them a try, you can create fair/good ones from bitmaps - faster than displacement - but worse looking, but wayyy better looking than bumpmaps.

 

try out crazybump.com, excellent software in beta

[BrianKitts]

try out crazybump.com, excellent software in beta

 

I second that one... a coworker just turned me on to that little gem, I use normal maps now for most of my block/brick masonry.