model/texture/normal help, please :-(
 

ok, i have XSI, can barely make a box but thats not what i want. i'm not interested in "making" a model per say. i want to make walls to get better normals for my textures, if you get my drift. my problem is this, i know NOTHING about xsi, i dont care to learn to model full scale. can anybody give me good tutorials for making a wall, and adding detail to it? please dont google and post whatever you come across, if it has helped you then please post it.

other questions:

1.) can i overlay my texture i want to make the wall out of to more accurately detail/create the wall?

2.) how do i export(?) the normal?

3.) any other info i need to know about this?

4.) lets say i want to design the wall in xsi then create the texture, how do i export(?) the layout to be usable in photoshop cs3 extended(stroking it, oh yea)?

5.) can xsi export(?) "mask's"?

thank you for ANY help you can give me!

nobody can help me?


:cry:

how do you make a normal? dont know if xsi can do that, at least max cant, but there are tools for it.

and if you want to render the wall texture's color map use a render engine to render the texture.

and btw i have no idea what you want :(

Wouldnt you make normals with tools such as Crazybump or the Nvidia Photoshop plugins?

i can make a normal map, and yea i'm almost positive it can be done in XSI. i have PSPX,PS CS2 & 3(3 is much better) and i have Nvidia's normal map plug in for them. making one is not the problem, i want to do it in XSI on a model because it gives a more accurate normal than the plug in. actually i may still have some images to help explain:

texture i want to normal:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...Heb/regtex.jpg

normal map i create:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...Heb/mynorm.jpg

normal map created using a model in XSI(i'm assuming):
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...Heb/hlnorm.jpg

see the difference?

ok, thats done with tools like xNormal :D and 3dsmax can use render to texture > height map and the hightmap can be converted into a normal map.

Ok, making a normal map from high poly mesh quick rundown:

Make a low poly mesh, for a wall, that would be like, a grid primitive 128x128

Unwrap the low poly mesh (assign a material, plug an image into the diffuse, and just set a planar projection since it's just a square grid)

Make the hi-poly mesh.

Select the low poly mesh. Open the ultimapper. Select the high resolution mesh. Click regenerate.

Done!?

You can also render out ambient occlusion, and basic heightmaps (grayscale map map lol) this same way.
More info: http://developer.valvesoftware.com/w...reation_in_XSI

Ok, to export the "layout" you can unwrap the hi-poly mesh, and then in the texture editor press Shift+S to "stamp" the wireframe onto the current texture (make a pure black texture for this). Little tip, if you put this stamped image in a layer with blending mode set to screen than only the yellow lines show up and you can paint under them.


When refering to your texture when modeling the high poly mesh, your probably going to want to use rotoscopy. Check it out in the XSI help documents.



Also, you might want to check out a program called CrazyBump. Like the nvidia plugin, but good (though it can't do du/dv (refraction) maps iirc)

Lemme know if you need any help :D

thank you very much, that was for the most part what i needed to know, at least to get me started.

crazybump sucks. y'all aren't understanding "why" i want to do it on a model and not with the plug-in or one of those crappy normal map makers. its a hell of alot better of a result getting a normal from a model.


again thank you, i'm going to spend ALOT of time this weekend trying to teach myself the program.

also, before i start, which is better, maya? or XSI?

dont even think about blinder, that program is crap.

Dunno.. i use XSI, but mainly because there's the free Mod Tool version and because its the program used by Valve - i'm just beginning to understand things ;). 3D Studio Max is another very popular choice.

Most people will either tell you that 2. maya is better or that 2. they are all the same. Of course people in group 1. are just expressing their opinion, whereas group 2 is right. I doesn't really matter.


They all have their strengths and weaknessed but I feel like XSI has fewer frustrating model ruining quirks you need to be aware of and avoid. For example, first time I used 3DSMax I accidentally moved my mouse to the wrong viewport and had to spend five minutes reseting modifiers and going back through selection modes to get back to what I was doing...that kind of thing won't ever happen in XSI.

I use 3dsm, but mainly cuz there is a pile of tools available from third parties.


For some reason, I can't run the XSI mod tool on my computer... (vista to blame?) Basically, it starts up, then errors out and crashes. I dunno... so 3dsm it is fo me!

i have vista, but i must admit, it takes a while for it to start.

ok, sooooo 3dsmax? is it free?

and can it generate normal maps or does it have a plugin than can?

also, can i take a gray scale image(or color,whatever) apply it to the model and then have the model change according to the image, as in, white would be higher and black would be deeper? if you understand that.

3ds max is far from free, but I heard you can "aquire" it from various sources.

same place i got photoshop cs2 and cs3 extended?? :lol:

EDIT: and lightroom...

Yes, there's a normal map plugin for 3dsmax that I've used, and it works similar to how Mr. Happy describes.

Also you can deform a mesh using a bitmap like that with most programs. However, I think if you did that and then rendered a normal map from it, you'd get pretty much the same result as if you used the photoshop plugin.