You don't need CrazyBump. You can do this same thing by using Photoshop's Bas Relief filter and taking shots from top right (goes into red channel) and bottom left (goes into green channel). Then just use a Photocopy filter and set the Darkness to 0 and detail around 7 (goes in the blue channel).
I've edited a texture from Project Paralax Remastered with your method (only quick and dirty to test if it's working or not) and this is what came out:
(one shot is 10 AM, the other 4 PM)
Looks amazing for my taste, really an extreme bumpy road now. Looks even better if an NPC with a torch is walking around, it's almost like tesselation but without a performence drop. With appropriate skills it could look outstanding. And Crazybump is a beast with incredible options, wish I had heard about it earlier.
Nice, maybe try a bit less "Large Detail" in crazybump (25-30) with high intensity and small details and see how it looks. A high amount of large detail tends to soften/round the shapes sometimes. Keep experimenting, you will definitely learn a lot more.
This is what this particular Normal Map looks like ingame.http://static1.nexusmods.com/110/mods/images/40512-3-1376781110.gif
Keep in mind that there is some parallax going on in there as well, the screenshot is from Project Parallax Remastered. I included my own custom normal map for this texture to better match the parallax map.
this is an interesting alternative that can be used in conjunction with this tutorial without external program... just nvidia plugin. if you make the work as in this tut for the basic bump and manage details in a separate psd... and then merge the 2 normal u can have great results...i suggest to keep lower the number of overlays (round 15-20... because the basic bump do the job well
I tried downloading crazy bump once... My antivirus was going crazy on it, and it was being downloaded from their official site. Anyone had similar issues? I want to try this tutorial, i'll totally need it in the future.
hey osmodius, thanks for the tut. did you try ndo2 instead of crazy bump? much more customization,better presets and much more precision. workflow is fine...few things imo can be improved...when you've done painting the isles.... do not export in jpg (in the name of gods...do not do it ) artifacts.... use tga instead. you can have interesting results also if you do not use vanilla maps at all..for details almost any rock-kind noisy things will make the job,,,,and specular in consequence is way better if you do not use vanilla spec at all... but make a new one from the "noisy "thing. when you resize ...copy paste in a new file and use the ps tool to resize...do not drag manually...is not precise...and a single bit could F!!@K the seamless pattern. try also to work on 3x3 tiled space...you will have a clearer idea of how final product will be when it's tiled...2048 (6184 tiled) is more than enough imo...resize is less distructive if you work directly for the size you're gonna use ingame or 2 time that size. oh and save format info you give near the end is wrong... both dxt3 and dxt5 use alpha channel... just dxt5 does it better...and same size... nothing changes if you're saving a normal for rock or glass...results in terms of lucid or dull...depend only on specular...not on compression.
anyway... the bump ...indipendent from details is definitely the right workflow...i do something similar. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/Images/267594/?
Thanks Cabal, I will take this information into account and apply it next time I'm doing this type of stuff. Oh and when I export my image, I usually export it in Tiff uncompressed. My computer has a very slow processor though and I wanted to get the tutorial over with, it would have taken longer to do tiff while recording full HD.
yep zzjay... i use ndo as well for armors ...basically in 2 different way: 1 creating an height map in black and white (also for small details like studs) and then converting into normal , 2 sculpting directly in ndo with vectorial design (the very best feature of ndo2 are the sculpting capabilities directly into the normal)
Actually it is true. Maybe not with 3 clicks, but the result its good enough. And please dont become one of those grammar nazi, because I bet he speaks better english than you his language
And about the tutorial: I think its great, but it takes too much time to create a single normal map. I prefer nDo2, even tho I have to pay for it, but it saves a lot of time
Takes me 20 minutes to make a normal map this way. And even with nDo2, you still need to make sure that the image you are going to use has light shades for the highs, and darker shades for the lows. There is no normal map creator that can process colors as more than different shades of light and dark. When he has proof of his method being better and truly being done in just a few clicks, he can come on here and call my method obsolete. I know what I am talking about and the results show in my work.
Please put a text file or readme file we can download so we can endorse you. Not everyone would like to download the whole 98mb video file. I watched the video from youtube and it was very helpful, thank you.
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(one shot is 10 AM, the other 4 PM)
Looks amazing for my taste, really an extreme bumpy road now. Looks even better if an NPC with a torch is walking around, it's almost like tesselation but without a performence drop. With appropriate skills it could look outstanding.
And Crazybump is a beast with incredible options, wish I had heard about it earlier.
Thanks again for your helpful tutorial.
Keep in mind that there is some parallax going on in there as well, the screenshot is from Project Parallax Remastered. I included my own custom normal map for this texture to better match the parallax map.
this is an interesting alternative that can be used in conjunction with this tutorial without external program... just nvidia plugin.
if you make the work as in this tut for the basic bump and manage details in a separate psd... and then merge the 2 normal u can have great results...i suggest to keep lower the number of overlays (round 15-20... because the basic bump do the job well
nice tut and music mr osmodius,thx
did you try ndo2 instead of crazy bump? much more customization,better presets and much more precision.
workflow is fine...few things imo can be improved...when you've done painting the isles.... do not export in jpg (in the name of gods...do not do it
you can have interesting results also if you do not use vanilla maps at all..for details almost any rock-kind noisy things will make the job,,,,and specular in consequence is way better if you do not use vanilla spec at all... but make a new one from the "noisy "thing.
when you resize ...copy paste in a new file and use the ps tool to resize...do not drag manually...is not precise...and a single bit could F!!@K the seamless pattern.
try also to work on 3x3 tiled space...you will have a clearer idea of how final product will be when it's tiled...2048 (6184 tiled) is more than enough imo...resize is less distructive if you work directly for the size you're gonna use ingame or 2 time that size.
oh and save format info you give near the end is wrong... both dxt3 and dxt5 use alpha channel... just dxt5 does it better...and same size... nothing changes if you're saving a normal for rock or glass...results in terms of lucid or dull...depend only on specular...not on compression.
anyway... the bump ...indipendent from details is definitely the right workflow...i do something similar.
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/Images/267594/?
thanks again
And well doing i tin xnormal plugin would be different,but maybe they'll be a bit better...unfortuntellyi can't get NDO to work...
anyway if someone is interested and can use photomerge in PS,can dl for free this ndo plugin
1 creating an height map in black and white (also for small details like studs) and then converting into normal ,
2 sculpting directly in ndo with vectorial design (the very best feature of ndo2 are the sculpting capabilities directly into the normal)
And please dont become one of those grammar nazi, because I bet he speaks better english than you his language
And about the tutorial: I think its great, but it takes too much time to create a single normal map. I prefer nDo2, even tho I have to pay for it, but it saves a lot of time