Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Shivan Hunter on April 13, 2010, 05:27:05 pm

Title: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Shivan Hunter on April 13, 2010, 05:27:05 pm
SO I made my first normal map, for Esarai's Kvasir fighter. Because it's awsum.

(http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/624/screen0959.png)
(http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/7002/screen0957.png)
(http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/1278/screen0954.png)

Yes, I'm a noob and there are quite a few things I would do differently. But this passes as a first attempt, I think, and I may remake it sometime.

Good? Bad? One big mess? feedback is much appreciated.
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Hero_Swe on April 13, 2010, 05:34:55 pm
Holy moly...that is epic! DO MOAR!
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: pecenipicek on April 13, 2010, 05:37:41 pm
somewhere along the lines of "decent" and "ok". i think that the nm would look a wee bit better inverted.
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Colonol Dekker on April 13, 2010, 05:50:30 pm
At the end of the day, as long as it looks how you want it to and you're happy with the end product, that's all that matters. To be fair you wouldn't have posted a pic if you thought it was **** would ya. ;) So I give it my Orestes seal of approval. :yes:
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Shivan Hunter on April 13, 2010, 06:56:36 pm
I inverted that weird part near the back and did some tweaking on the top part. It's not all that great but I think it'ss work as a good first attempt.

(http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/7339/screen0963.png)
(http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/602/screen0960.png)

And here's the normal map, in TGA format, no compression. Do whatever you want with it.

http://www.box.net/shared/b1nnvq5zrq (http://www.box.net/shared/b1nnvq5zrq)

:)
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Angelus on April 13, 2010, 07:04:21 pm
The new one looks cool, the redone engine part blends now with the rest. Good Work!
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: pecenipicek on April 13, 2010, 07:18:13 pm
yep, thats it :D
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: JGZinv on April 13, 2010, 07:48:32 pm
Awesome looking...

Want to write a tutorial?  ;7
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Droid803 on April 13, 2010, 07:52:01 pm
Yess! :yes:
The first one looked weird. Now it looks awesome.
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Commander Zane on April 13, 2010, 10:15:39 pm
Goddamn that's hot.
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Phaserbank on April 16, 2010, 12:25:55 pm
I think it looks good. Keep it up.


Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Commander Zane on April 16, 2010, 12:36:16 pm
Do you think you could give the Ursa normals? It's been without one (Other normals for it aren't that good) for five years.
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Shivan Hunter on April 16, 2010, 02:50:37 pm
Hmmmmm.

I'm doing the Selkie at the moment, but that's going reeeeeeally slowly. I tried just using the diffuse map, but the way that one's set up, selective gaussian blur and noise reduction just do nothing about it.

I may try the Ursa as well- it'll probably go faster.
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Commander Zane on April 16, 2010, 02:57:49 pm
Sweet, you'd be making quite a contribution by giving one of the three remaining Terran ships without Normals what it needs (Ursa, Hades, and Alastor, however the latter two are not HTLed).
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Shivan Hunter on April 16, 2010, 03:55:19 pm
Well, the Ursa has the exact same problem that the Selkie did. I'll still do it, since the Ursa actually needs a normal map, whereas the Selkie looks alright without one. The base texture needs some improvement though :/
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Commander Zane on April 16, 2010, 04:00:30 pm
Best of luck then. :D
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Shivan Hunter on April 16, 2010, 05:07:41 pm
I'm seriously starting to doubt the usefulness of doing a normal map for this texture. The texture itself I can kind of work with- but the UVing is atrocious. Details rarely ever match up with plating/greebling on the model. Some details aren't rendered at all, even though they look like they were designed to appear on the model. It's not ever made clear what part of the model the texture goes on, and the texture itself is very dirty- even the areas that are quite dark already have burn marks and smudges applied to them so it's hard to see any details aside from what's on the top plating.

 :mad:
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Rodo on April 16, 2010, 06:29:57 pm
looks good, nice work.
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Commander Zane on April 20, 2010, 05:27:18 pm
How's your work going for you?
Title: Re: A noob and a normal map
Post by: Shivan Hunter on April 21, 2010, 12:18:08 am
Not so well. A lot of school stuff to do, (/me shakes fist at Diff EQ!) trying to get my effects pack/minicampaigns together, etc. I did normalmap the GTB Rhea and the GTF Kelpie for the minicampaign, though. I know Herra already did the Rhea, but it's good practice anyway. Meh.

I'm actually sort of avoiding the Ursa. It needs a better texture, and REALLY needs a better UVMap. I can probably do something with it... I'll try once this week's tests are over. Then, of course, I'll have exams coming up. So, derp.