normal mapped rock and unwrapping

[SgWRX]

hello. just getting started normal mapping. i took a 1.28M faced object (left - 6 turbosmooth iterations) and went to a 600 face object (mid - 1 turbo smooth iteration, then converted to edit poly) and object on the right is the unwrapped version of the 600 face object.

 

is this about a decent as it gets as far as properly normal mapping? i'm doing more research into unwrapping an object like this, as you can see in the checker pattern, it's not all one nicely wrapped object. any thoughts on that?

 

thanks,

 

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[Chris MacDonald]

Pelt mapping is probably best for things like this. Have a search for that.

[Tommy L]

Start with a sphere and yopu wont have any mapping issues?

[Scott Schroeder]

Try using blended mapping or just check out the lazy uvw editor: http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/lazy-uvw-editior-procedural-uvw-layout-and-texture-baking-tool-for-3dsmax. The script essentially uses this technique:http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/blended_box_mapping/blended_box_mapping.htm

[SgWRX]

thanks. i'll focus on the scripts and pelt mapping. i really need to learn unwrapping. also, for these i started with a box and used spherify - there was a tut on vimeo,

Sascha Henrichs. my results weren't like his when i tried his planar mapping/tweak.

[Scott Schroeder]

Here's the thing. Using a checker map is great for a character or other hero prop, but not so great for a rock. A rock has a lot of micro detail in the texture itself so it can naturally blend even when the checker map shows there will be hard seams. You'll end up wasting hours trying to get a result that can be achieved in mere minutes if you use the proper rock map as a test.

 

Don't also forget the rock will probably have grass, plants, other rocks, etc around it to help hide the texture seams. If you really want to get rid of the seams, use a 3rd party program like Substance Painter, Mudbox, Zbrush, or other program and just quickly paint away the seams. But that's only if the rock is the hero object of your scene.

[SgWRX]

yep the hero thing... and in this case a simple quickie unwrap seems to be OK since these aren't the hero objects. i was kind of wondering though, if a more accurate unwrap is worth the time, given that the low poly version of the rock masks a lot of coarser detail anyway. i suppose the question is, level of detail. i'll be 4800 vs 600 polys would get me closer to the high poly obj, but then it'd probably require better mapping.

 

still have to study unwrapping more...

 

the box blended i've seen before but never really investigated. it looks like a great option for a couple different circumstances. maybe i'll tackle that next.

 

here's what i ended up with - i just kept repeating the quickie unwrap for these rocks, the low poly in foreground. then for the rendered testing scene, the three rocks in the immediate foreground are the highpoly hero's.

Edited March 3, 2015 by SgWRX
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