Small Normal Map Question

[Dracula420]

i am using GIMP and i need to make a light colored custom race less reflective and was wondering what you do with the texture or normal map to make it less shiny and reflective?

[Genzel]

Shininess can be changed with the normal map. With a transparency alpha channel on the normal map, you use the eraser to erase the image where you want it to be less shiny. Don't completely erase, and make sure you erase with an opacity of under 90% or so. The higher opacity of erasing, the less shiny the thing will be.

 

If you want to make an entirely new normal map for the object, open the regular texture in GIMP. Remove any alpha channel under Layer>Transparency>Remove Alpha Channel, then hit Filter>Map>Normal Map, you'll want a a scale between 5 and 15 about, and a higher squared filter for increased smoothness I believe. With that, the texture will be blue. hit Layer>Transparency>Add Alpha Channel, then choose the eraser and set a highish opacity for less shine and erase the parts that should not be shiny. The new normal map should be saved with an identical file name as the original texture but with "_n" at the end, no quotes. Save with the second compression option, generate mipmaps.

 

Hope that was what you were looking for, and hopefully I know what I'm talking about.