Nodes to generate normal maps etc. from bitmaps
The functionality of XNormal/Crazybump/gimp-normalmap plugin etc. implemented as a texture node, so nodes can generate normal maps, bump maps, displacement maps, specular maps etc. right in the nodes system from any image texture without having to use a third party program.
11 Comments
Upvoted this but that functionality really should go only to Compositor upgraded for working with textures. Many people (including me) want to work in blender like in Substance Designer these days. As Beer Baron said in few other tasks, not that much coding work is needed to fulfill that, we have most of it in blender at this moment. We just need to link systems and add few texture-specific nodes to compositor.
It's not particularly useful to have a proposal that says "make/integrate this feature from X other software." You can't assume that other users and developers are as familiar with your workflow as you are. Where would this node live? What would be its inputs, outputs, and internal settings? A mock-up image of how you envision it in action would be extremely helpful.
Sorry I thought it was something anyone who had ever used a bitmap and normal maps would know, so I figured write less and save people's reading time.
But if you don't understand it I'll see what I can come up with for you. Is it possible to edit the proposal and add pictures?
It is. There's an edit button on the lower right of the proposal text. It all uses Markdown syntax. You'll need to host the images externally (for now) on a site like imgur, but aside from that, it's quite straight-forward.
@David Thompson I have recently finished creating a whole node group for photo to PBR texture conversion. Here is the demo: youtube.com/watch
There is a node setup: blendermarket.com/products/squricle-normal-a-procedural-normal-map-generator The reason it should come to Blender compositor:
It would be awesome but honestly I think it would eat up a lot of memory having to recreate the normal map any time you prerender/render. If anything it should be included in the compositor so you can save the normal map, but then you already have gimp, so...
-Bump node=Normal map -Height map=Separate HSV->Value(or just plugging it into something that accepts number instead of color) and then tweak it to produce desired result -Albedo/diffuse-You have it Everything else-Same as height map,but differently tweaked
i.imgur.com/SdPDBJu.png , I am think it's already in cycles node, but if cycles can support blur node, it's will be better on process the detail of the image.
Isn't it possible at the moment? You take the texture, modify it using gradient ramps to prefered values, add additional details with noises and simply bake them up? I'm using this kind of workflow to bypass third party soft.
That sounds like bump and specular maps perhaps, but I believe normal maps in particular require a bit more of a specialised algorithm that might be better off having it's own dedicated node, which works similarly to the other software.
(If you can point me to a node setup that converts a bitmap to a normal map with a similar array of options then I'd love to be proven wrong!)