Normal mapping help!

[Munkybutt]

Hi,
I have just completed a sculpt in mudbox, and now I am trying to create a normal map of it.
I am not sure what is going wrong but this is the result I am getting every time!


can someone help me, I am slowly dying inside trying to figure the problem out.

[Munkybutt]

I have tried to make a displacement map as well, but it comes out as plain grey.
I think it is because the model does not have any levels other than the 1, would this result in the maps screwing up because they do not have a base mesh to reference?

Please help!

[Ties]

normal mapping and displacement mapping in zbrush and i think in mudbox too looks at the difference between levels. So if you only got one level it shows empty. I don't know why you would project the same details you allready got on your mesh. If it is to smooth your normals etc you can just do it in maya

[Ties]

you can bake normals in a different program like max or maya if you want the difference between two models. Or I don't know if mudbox had a feature like zproject(zbrush) else you could project those details and make a displacement or normal map out of it

[Munkybutt]

well basically I have a model that I did, it was fairly high polly (in terms of polly modelling) I then decided to take it into mudbox, to learn how to sculpt and create maps from it. Now I want to carry on with the pipeline and texture, rig, skin and animate it. though I cannot do that with the mesh that I have sculpted as it has too many pollies and crashes max.
So I would like a displacement map to add to the texture of the base mesh so I can continue on with the project.

I now have a result with the displacement map, it looks like this:



but, when I attempt to apply it to the model in a displacement slot, it distorts the model horribly.

[Ties]

it looks a bit distorted like on the places where the pinky should be. Did you try to render it with mental ray?

[Munkybutt]

there are loads of distortions, and even in the areas where it is not distorted it comes out weird, I am using mental ray, is their a certain setup you need for it to work properly in mental ray?

[Munkybutt]

looking at the mudbox website there is, but it only tells you how to do it in maya