[LE] How do I make Model Space Normal Maps

[morrowind1979]

I am creating a new custom race with custom skin textures and as such I want to make custom normal maps for the skin textures. The method I normally use for making normal maps is the NVIDIA Normal map filter plugin in Corel Paint Shop Pro X. This dosen't work for Model space normals as they have lots of green, red and purple, and the NVIDIA filter plugin just creates a basic purple normal map (like the ones used for static objects). So my question is how do I make Model Space Normal Maps with all the colours???

[Di0nysys]

Lookup AwesomeBump, super nifty free map generator. Does normal bump, spec, etc. If u wanna do PBR, Knald is a great option too but it's paid.

[morrowind1979]

Thanks I will check it out. I tried Normal map online but it dosen't make the shades of green and red either, hopefully awesome bump does

[morrowind1979]

Nah just generates the plain blue normal map same as every other tool. There must be some setting you have to tweak or some other trick to making these multi coloured skin normal maps

[morrowind1979]

I finally found a tool that can create Model Space Normal Maps called xNormal although its not perfect it made the head MSN textures fine but for some reason it paints the backs of the body textures red which means no light reflection and very dark, but hey its progress really pleased with the head textures!

[RGMage2]

That type of normal map is usually baked from a high poly mesh in a 3D modeling program. I've done that in Blender for my Na'vi race. One of the problems I faced was that Blender baked it with some channels inverted which resulted in reverse shadowing. The way I fixed it was to invert 2 of the color channels in Photoshop. Inverting the green and the red, or inverting the whole thing and then reverting the blue produced a result that was consistent with what Bethesda's engine wanted.

 

If you have your map for the head nif, then you need to compare it in-game with the vanilla torso. The shadowing front to back and right to left must be consistent. The best place to test it is someplace dark like a cave while standing in front of a light source, so side facing light is lit up and side away is completely shadowed. If the shadowing seems to be reversed, you could experiment with inverting color channels.

[morrowind1979]

That type of normal map is usually baked from a high poly mesh in a 3D modeling program. I've done that in Blender for my Na'vi race. One of the problems I faced was that Blender baked it with some channels inverted which resulted in reverse shadowing. The way I fixed it was to invert 2 of the color channels in Photoshop. Inverting the green and the red, or inverting the whole thing and then reverting the blue produced a result that was consistent with what Bethesda's engine wanted.

 

If you have your map for the head nif, then you need to compare it in-game with the vanilla torso. The shadowing front to back and right to left must be consistent. The best place to test it is someplace dark like a cave while standing in front of a light source, so side facing light is lit up and side away is completely shadowed. If the shadowing seems to be reversed, you could experiment with inverting color channels.

Ahh thanks. I manged to make the MSN maps but had the reverse lighting issue. I will try your inverting method.