bump map nightmares!!
 

Hello to everyone.
Does everyone else have as much trouble with bump maps as i do? sometimes the bumps are coming out from the surface and sometimes going in, on the same piece of geometry, even when all the normals for the surface are facing out.
does anyone know why this happens? and if so how you go about dealing with.
if anyone can help it would be much appreciated, thanks.

Hi. I think your problem might be in the bump map's image itself. I did some research on bumpmaps and height maps. What I found is that black colored parts in a bump map means a lower (inward or downward) elevation, and white colored parts means a higher (outward or upward) elevation. If there's different shades of grey in the bump map, they will be lower or higher depending on how dark or light they are.

If your making your own bumps in maya then in Photoshop make a 50% gray canvas and then paint from there, white bumps out and blacks in.