Substance Painter
In this start to finish texturing project within Substance Painter we cover all the techniques you need to texture the robot character.
# 1 03-10-2011 , 05:49 PM
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Fun with normal maps (not)

Hello there. I'm having a bit of an issue with normal maps so I figured I'd post it here.

I'm currently working on a lowpoly soldier character for a C&C mod, but since I was planning to make some decent quality renders to add on my portfolio I decided to give it a bit more depth with normal maps and higher def textures than the 256x256 I was supposed to be using.

So, here's my problem:
user added image

As you can see my normal map "flips" halfway through the boots, making the inner side bumped, the outer side hollowed, and creating the worst seam the world has ever seen where the UV edges meet. So far I tried (to no avail) flipping the normals, modyfing the UVs and deleting/recreating faces. None of this helped and now I'm stuck with this. Can anyone help me out? :\


By the way, here's the Normal map if you want to check for errors. The boots are on the upper left corner.

# 2 03-10-2011 , 07:47 PM
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Try turning off two sided lighting (under panel lighting) and look to see if you have some normals flipped (they will look dark)............dave




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Last edited by daverave; 03-10-2011 at 08:24 PM.
# 3 03-10-2011 , 08:49 PM
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So far I tried (to no avail) flipping the normals, modyfing the UVs and deleting/recreating faces.




And no, it doesn't help - disabling 2-sided lightning doesn't change a thing in the viewport, meaning that all the face normals are facing the right direction.

# 4 03-10-2011 , 08:57 PM
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OK next see if your UVs are flipped go to your UV editor press the button highlighted flipped ones will look red ok ones blue.............dave

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# 5 03-10-2011 , 09:15 PM
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Ok, UVs were indeed flipped (no clue on how that happened), BUT even after flipping them back into the right position the problem remains - only, now the outer side is bumped out and the inner side is hollowed.

# 6 03-10-2011 , 09:18 PM
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Could you show a pic of your UVs............dave




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# 7 03-10-2011 , 10:02 PM
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user added image

But, as I've already said, flipping the boots UVs (which I'm gonna do anyway since mirrored UVs will be trouble when I'll do textures for different factions) does nothing except for flipping the side the hollowed part shows...

# 8 03-10-2011 , 10:15 PM
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Sorry I have no idea whats wrong...........dave




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# 9 03-10-2011 , 10:47 PM
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Well that is certainly bizzare...if the normals are ok then it should work??


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"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes
# 10 05-10-2011 , 11:46 PM
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I kind of worked around it by actually mirroring the UVs on the shoes, but that's not how it's supposed to be :| none of you guys found anything about fixing this, I guess?

# 11 06-10-2011 , 12:57 AM
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No still has me stumped.....without the model file its hard to judge as well mate. At least for now you have a work around..

cheers bullet


bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes
# 12 06-10-2011 , 06:58 AM
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I know - I should probably have just given you guys the model, but since I'm working on this mod with another guy I'd better ask him before I send you anything.
Thing is he's been unavailable for almost a week and without any other means of contact I have no idea if he might have a word about it. I'll get back to you once I get in touch with him.

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