Bumpmapping

[Robert V.]

Hi all,

I have 3 questions,

1) When I use a bumpmap, the effects of the bumpmap are a little blend. Is there a way to intensify the bumpmap? (Could be a nice new feature for keyshot 2) Because when I make the bumpmap in crazybump it looks just like I want it.

2) Whats the main difference/ advantages between bump and normalmapping? When I used a normalmap (the purple looking picture) there is almost no relief on the model...

3) When I render my model with bumpmap, it takes forever. By that I mean that keyshot freezes at 1% rendering.


These are a lot of questions, but would help me a lot.

thanks!
R.

[guest84672]

In order for a normal map to have an effect, you actually need to generate a normal map if you can.

Have you tried adjusting the bump texture height?

What are your render settings?

[JohnG]

I can suggest a couple of things to check, firstly if it is a Normal Map you're using (purple picture) make sure you have normal map mode checked in the Bump Map dialogue box otherwise you may not get the effect you expect, maybe you have but from experience I know its easy to forget to do this!

Secondly check the projection type, only use UV coords if you know the geometry has UV coords, otherwise use boxmap or planar mapping, again you may not get the effect you expect if you use the wrong type of mapping.

[Robert V.]

@Thomas

I used crazybump for creating a normalmap, so I think that was ok.
Can I adjust the bump texture height in keyshot? or do I need to do that with crazybump?
Rendersettings?

Samples 256
Ray bounces 6
AA 8
Shadow 10
Global ill. 5
pixel fil. 1.3
High quality texture fil. enabled

output: 500 x 500 (it gave me the same result as 1920x1200, freeze at 1%)

@JohnG

I enabled the checkbox for normalmap, so that couldn't be the problem.
However, I'll try to use a different projection type, see what will happen.



@both
Is normalmap better? because you both talked about normalmapping and not about the bumpmap.


Here is a picture of the model I was talking about, as you can see the body of the grenade is very "clean" and perfect. (the shiny metal parts look beautiful though.)

[Robert V.]

Oops,

I found the "height" option, works like a dream!

This answers my first question!

Still 2 to go...

[guest84672]

ok first of all - drop your render settings. That's why it "hangs".

Leave everything at default, maybe increase shadow quality to 2. This will only affect your ground shadow quality, btw.

You will get a beautiful image. There is no question in my mind.

Normalmap can be better defined, and hence give you better results. Our on the fly conversion from any image to a bumpmap is pretty kickass, so especially for creating "imperfection" in a material it is perfect.

Thomas

[Robert V.]

Well, I rendered this picture in 20min (which is very acceptable to me)


with these settings:

Samples 150
Ray bounces 4
AA 8
Shadow 10
Global ill. 5
pixel fil. 1.4
High quality texture fil. disabled
1920x1200


Could it be the high quality texture setting? The copper on top is a texture. not just copper as material.

ps, "on the fly conversion" how does that work? just choose an ordinary picture?

[guest84672]

You don't need -

150 samples
antialiasing at 8
Groundshadow quality at 10
GI quality at 5

This will only increase render times.

High quality texture filtering you can uncheck also.

Pixel filter size puts a slight blur on the picture - the higher, the more blurred it is.

Ordinary pictures - yep - that's all you need. Take a wood texture and apply it as a bumpmap - just for fun - quite amazing what it does.

Thomas



Thomas