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body normalmaps

PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2019 2:25 pm
by pitibonom
Hi :)

I'm struggling for getting male and female bodies normalmaps :(

Is there somewhere i can find some ?

maybe some MH users created some that they could share here .
This would be great !

thanks in advance :)

Re: body normalmaps

PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2019 4:50 pm
by loki1950
There are several threads here on the forum that have normal maps for the body use the search function ;)

Enjoy the Choice :)

Re: body normalmaps

PostPosted: Wed May 15, 2019 11:41 am
by bogdan666
There is a "trick" for better mesh/texture appearance even without a normal map. Just create a MH Character (woman etc.), then adjust the target sliders (Modelling-->Custom panel): For example maximize "Armpit", "Foot_achilles_tendon", "Foot_malleolus_lateral", "Foot_malleolus_medial" and "Shoulder_shape" etc. (for a good base model mesh) Then in blender use the subsurf modifier and apply it before the armature and your character will end up with better looking feet/ankles, armpits and clavicle, but it comes at a price: ca. 135~ triangles. That shouldn't be a problem for a main character in a game engine (and even less of a problem in blender), if you have a good pc. It's a pretty good base for further work, then add a 4k texture to it and voila!

4k skin: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15545&start=80

As for the normal map I can't help, because I haven't found any decent/realistic ones so far.
But as far as I understand normal maps are based on a resculpted (subtraction sculpting?) high poly mesh, whose details are baked onto a lower resolution mesh in blender. I've done that once and it worked technically, but looked like sh..... :-)

Re: body normalmaps

PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2019 12:55 am
by Decachroma
I cant find any good normals either

Re: body normalmaps

PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2019 3:09 am
by loki1950
Baking your own normal map in blender is fairly simple though it is tedious to do the hi-res sculpting.

Enjoy the Choice :)

Re: body normalmaps

PostPosted: Sun Dec 08, 2019 4:15 pm
by bogdan666
I can tell from experience that it is really easy to bake normal maps. (the technical part and some minor changes like veins and better body definition around critical areas like knee or ankle; never tried to do a full muscle body normal map)

You need only one low-poly mesh (the mesh, you will apply the normal map to) and a high-poly one for resculpting (add/subtract: crease brush, f sculpt draw and blob etc.)

The high poly mesh can be generated by applying one or two subdivisions on a low-poly mesh.

At first create a 1024x1024 or a 2048x2048 blank texture for the low-poly mesh (select whole low-poly mesh in edit mode and go to the uv/image editor-->hit the "new" button, give the image a name and confirm).

After that go to object mode, shift select the high-poly mesh and the low-poly mesh, go to the render tab (right side: camera symbol), open the bake scroll down menu, change bake mode to normals, check "select to active"-box and
set the margin to 10 pixels (depending on the uv layout), click bake and voila.

Here a link to my thread about this topic with a link to a good tutorial:
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=17976

Re: body normalmaps

PostPosted: Mon Dec 09, 2019 11:17 pm
by Mindfront
Hard or easy depends on how advanced and detalied the body normal map needs to be. My normal maps is created by baking in several different steps. First larger details like bumps, muscles and knees, baked from highresolution mesh to a default MakeHuman character, this normal map always needs alot of post editing to remove glitches. For finer details I mostly start making one or more bump texture and bake the normals from that. After alot of polishing (keep an eye at the seams on different subdivision levels.) I add them together to one. Always saving the original baking if wanting to change someting without affect the other details.

Try baking something more easy at the beginning and slowly experimenting with more advanced. (I still prefer baking in Blender Internal)