Studies and...Buddies?

 Ho there!

Been busy studying today! Learnt something about normal bump mapping in a Cage method.

Things I learnt from this lesson were:

•Use Render To Texture to create a normal bump map.

•Use the Projection modifier to “steal” detail from a high-resolution mesh.

•Use the Normal Bump map type to render the effects of a normal bump map.


And for those who aren't so techno-involved, A bump map (as google so kindly puts it) is thus:

•Bump mapping is a computer graphics technique where at each pixel, a perturbation to the surface normal of the object being rendered is looked up in a texture map and applied before the illumination calculation is done (see, for instance, Phong shading)

aaanyway.

The first image is just the spread of the bump, the materials I was given to work with. it's just the unwrapped diffuse of a high-res model.

And the next image is the wrapped version of the diffuse bitmap of the warriors face in action. With no bump mapping included

And finally, here is the head with bump mapping included, when you compare the two heads it is a fairly obvious improvement.

As the little piece of paper here says:

'This tutorial showed you how to use a projection cage to receive texture from a high-resolution model, then apply the result to a low-resolution version of the same model. This technique is an effective way to assign complex surface detail to low-polygon objects. This can be a useful technique when you prepare a model for a game engine. It can help improve render time, as well. '


Well. There ya have it :D


-Francis

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Music - Apocalyptica - On the Rooftop with Quasimodo