I need help making a 3D texture Thread

I have a texture and I have a bump map, but photoshop 6 lighting effect screws it up and crazybump doesn't work very well for what I'm trying to do, basically wrap an image over a bump map. (Not that I can ask since crazybump has no forum!) I need to do a bunch of these and I can't figure out how the heck to do it. PLEASE can someone help me?

Edited by: General_Hoohah

There is a forum for it:
Indiedb.com

...no, I'm not trying to make a model or skin a model, I'm trying to make a 2D texture with 3D effects.

Edited by: General_Hoohah

What is crazybump? I think can't help you with that but if there's something else with bump mapping then you need to explain it more thoroughly.

Have you tried MaPZone?
Mapzoneeditor.com

I think there is another texture manipulator here somewhere, but I forget where,
Freegameslist.weebly.com

Hope it helped!

Edited by: TenaciousXL

I think people are really misunderstanding what I'm trying to do.

I'm trying to take a standard texture without any additional art, like a plain metal or rust texture, and apply it to a totally different and separate picture that has designs on it with bumps and different elevations (like a 3D surface or a grey scale bump map), and wrap the texture around that bump map or 3d surface with lighting effects, and spit out a 2D texture with both combined so it looks like it has a 3D surface.

All the stuff I find and that people suggest just adds additional lighting effects to a single stand alone texture, it doesn't or doesn't properly wrap a texture around separate bump map texture or 3D surface. They just make a bump map out of the first texture and apply it with lighting effects against it self, creating more depth. I don't want to do that. I tried this with crazybump and it refused to do what I wanted it to. It tried to do it but I'd either get a crash or it wouldn't look right.

Is anything like this available? Can Mapzone do this? From some pictures I saw of it, it looked like what most people keep mistakenly referring me to, a program that enhances a single image you give it.

Also, is there a specific term for what I want to do? I don't know what its called, and that's why I have to explain it.

Edited by: General_Hoohah

Tried to overlay the color texture over the bumpmap in Photoshop?! Then make AO, Spec and Normal maps with Crazybump.

I think you need some basic Photoshop skills that's all. Learn about using layers and blending modes in Photoshop. Also, if you double click on a layer, you see the blending options on the bottom. That gives you control over when one layer fades into the one below it. Google it: photoshop blending options.

None of this is going to give you very good results though. I use Crazybump to get some additional detail or create a heightmap from existing textures. You cannot expect to get similar results as you would get from baking highpoly detail into lowpoly. If your model is a box, it will be unnaturally sharp-edged, even though it may have detail bumpmaps now. So the texture won't enhance the lowpoly, only the material detail.

"You cannot expect to get similar results as you would get from baking highpoly detail into lowpoly."
That reminds me of xNormal

To me it sounds like you want to bake texture. That means rendering the texture in a 3D application so that a new texture is produced where the scene lighting / bump or normal maps are applied to the texture.

Like if you have:
1) a concrete wall texture
2) engraving bump map

You could put them in 3D software and bake a texture of a concrete wall that has the engraving in it and it would just be plain image without bump map.

EDIT: Also called render to texture.
Took me a while to find simple enough example, here they bake shadows onto different textures: 3dartistonline.com

Edited by: shadowflar3

Nope, this is a very old game that can't add bump maps or any fancy lighting effects. It's Battlezone 1. So I have to give the texture a 3D appearance my self. Its a challenge, but I think its worth it. The community is upgrading and patching the game, and a bunch of improvements are being added.... but sadly there's not much that can be done with the textures. So I need to make some textures with a 3D appearance and lighting effects, before hand, to try and add some life to the maps. I'm making a metal world, so I'll be making metal plates with layers of plates, vents, bolts, rust, etc. I don't know about the new versions of Photoshop, but I can't afford them and this computer is a little old. I took classes on Photoshop 6, and that's what I'm using.

So I need to add these effects totally independent of the game, because the game can't do any of that.

Edited by: General_Hoohah

I'm not sure you read what shadowflar3 said correctly, he said:

"That means rendering the texture in a 3D application so that a new texture is produced where the scene lighting / bump or normal maps are applied to the texture."

I believe that shadowflar means is that all the elements are applied to a single output texture. Which is what I think you want.

Edited by: TenaciousXL

Also I tried raising plates with the render lighting effects in PS6 a bunch of times. It always ends up looking like one of those old cheesy web buttons from 1998. Also, I did take a PS class. Its an easy effect to use, I just don't think it works very well with large surfaces. It works okay with raised edges but it does a lousy job when you want to raise an entire plate. It uses very very basic lighting effects for that kind of application. basically just a simplistic shadow frame around the object.

I checked out MaPZone and while it was powerful it can be quite overwhelming to use as a beginner. I found the other program that works similar to it but much easier to start out with called NeoTexture Edit. Here is a screens shot of it: (click to see full screen picture)

Is this want you want?
You can import bitmaps (even JPGs) into the program as well, you don't necessarily have to create them from scratch. Also the image on the bottom right hand corner can be saved.

Edited by: TenaciousXL

General_Hoohah wrote: Nope, this is a very old game that can't add bump maps or any fancy lighting effects.

Texture baking is done independently, and exactly because the actual game engine can't use normal maps or whatever you are baking.

All those fancy looking shadowed textures in 3D mobile games? Low-poly character models with subtle shadows? All done with texture baking.

Texture baking is exactly what you need and what you are trying to find out about. You might have been little ignorant for not knowing the word but you need to listen when people try to explain it to you and not be arrogant.

Sorry Didn't mean to be like that, but I've been getting a LLLLOOOTTTT of bad advice. You eventually get sick of it and start to get resistant. Sorry again, and thanks for the information!

TenaciousXL wrote: I checked out MaPZone and while it was powerful it can be quite overwhelming to use as a beginner. I found the other program that works similar to it but much easier to start out with called NeoTexture Edit. Here is a screens shot of it: (click to see full screen picture)

Is this want you want?
You can import bitmaps (even JPGs) into the program as well, you don't necessarily have to create them from scratch. Also the image on the bottom right hand corner can be saved.

Neat. I'll give it a go when I'm feeling better. I'm getting off a medication because of the side effects, and the withdrawal is really brutal. Can't really concentrate on anything right now. I'm too loopy, dizzy, drowsy, and generally FUBAR. Typing... which patience, and playing games that don't make you think too much, and watching TV and online vids... are about the only things I'm good for right now. Sucks...

shadowflar3 wrote: Texture baking is done independently, and exactly because the actual game engine can't use normal maps or whatever you are baking.

All those fancy looking shadowed textures in 3D mobile games? Low-poly character models with subtle shadows? All done with texture baking.

Texture baking is exactly what you need and what you are trying to find out about. You might have been little ignorant for not knowing the word but you need to listen when people try to explain it to you and not be arrogant.

Question. Is there a program that will convert a 3D model into a bump map, so I can "bake it" into an image?

Edited by: General_Hoohah

Texture baking is done in 3D modeling software such as 3DSMax or Blender:

1) Model the surface form or just use plain surface with normal map.
2) Apply the base flat texture on it.
3) Set up lighting the way you want to produce the shadows, for example top-right.
4) When you like how the surface looks rendered, you use the "bake texture" / "render to texture" feature. This produces a plain image with all the shadows produced by bump maps and surface form

Neotexture edit that TenaciousXL simulates this process in purely 2D, but I don't see the results being any better than using Photoshop Blending Effects, although its hard to make them behave correctly with complex wrapped textures as the shadow direction is not often constant on the texture.

Yes Shadowflar3 is right, Neotexture Edit is purely in 2D although there is a 3D rendering mode, its mostly a preview only.

I mentioned in one of my comments Xnormal which is probably what you want, look at its description form the site:
xNormal is an application to generate normal / ambient occlusion / displacement maps. It can also project the texture of the highpoly model into the lowpoly mesh ( complete texture transfer, even with different topologies ).

It includes too an interactive 3D viewer ( with advanced shaders and realtime soft shadows / glow effect ), some Photoshop filters and importers/exporters for 3dsmax and Maya.

I should mention xNormal is a 200MB download and its free!

After reviewing my list of game development tools (all free BTW) I noticed Tattoo,
Its a pretty cool program and its called a projection painter.
Which basically means you can import a 3D model into it and paint on it like you would paint with MS Paint! (but with better tools)
Here's a screen shot:

Now if you think you are good at painting perhaps you can paint the textures, lighting and the like on!
I should mention that its designed for low poly models.
And its a hefty 1.2MB download also free