Please help me figure out _msn normal maps

[Mud]

I'm attempting to convert assets from Pixiv's VRoid Studio (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1486350/VRoid_Studio_v0140/) into an anime-style race for Skyrim, as the permissions for using characters made in that program are very open, and I have very little 3D modeling experience but there are nice tools for making facial morphs and hair models within that program. I'm hitting a wall in my progress, however, where the models come with some textures, but I need to get model space normals for the race's head models which I have split into a face model and a scalp/neck model for morph purposes, but I do not have any idea how to produce high res models to have Blender bake normal maps for these, especially from shapes as stylistically simple as anime heads. I'm attaching the OBJs in case anyone would like to see what I'm dealing with or even lend me a hand here, would anyone be able to share some insight how I should go about trying to get _msn textures for this thing?

default femalehead.obj neck test.obj

[Guest]

I am no expert at this and I really don't know if it's the best way to do it.

 

I use GIMP and followed the procedure in this tutorial. It's easy and quick. Probably no different with adobe photoshop

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=77Nd7yXuSgg

 

[Seijin8]

6 hours ago, Thor2000 said:

I am no expert at this and I really don't know if it's the best way to do it.

 

I use GIMP and followed the procedure in this tutorial. It's easy and quick. Probably no different with adobe photoshop

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=77Nd7yXuSgg

 

 

That really only works for linear projection using a base image (nothing wrong with that, I use it all the time).  I think what the OP wants is something that creates them from a base mesh and functions as a wraparound.

[Mud]

5 hours ago, Seijin8 said:

 

That really only works for linear projection using a base image (nothing wrong with that, I use it all the time).  I think what the OP wants is something that creates them from a base mesh and functions as a wraparound.

Yep, the majority of guides and workarounds are sufficient for making the more common type of normal map, the tangent space normals that are mostly blue with some rainbow colors scattered in, but I need a different kind for skin textures, object space normal maps, that need to be made the real way.

 

 

 

It did turn out that Blender's just rather questionable at baking these things and I got much better results from using xNormal to simply bake textures using the same obj as both the high and low resolution file, but now I cannot seem to get the neck normals to match with the conventional Skyrim bodies for the life of me. I tried adjusting the polygons on the neck object but it's still not very smooth and light seems to affect it oddly despite trying to emulate properly functioning models from other mods. I hate working with 3D, maaaannnn... 

 

[Seijin8]

8 hours ago, Mud said:

but now I cannot seem to get the neck normals to match with the conventional Skyrim bodies

This might be too remedial (especially if there are issues with the meshes), but can you throw the normals into a 2D editor and just blend them with some that do work?  At least then you can be sure of where the problem actually lies (mesh/textures/both).

[Mud]

I've tried that, but it didn't seem to work out at all, even if I also tried to adjust my neck's UV map to follow the bottom of the Skyrim necks' UVs. There are enough gross parts in my OBJ's render that I'd say I'm fucking up the models' normals somehow as I fiddle with them, but nothing I can find online about recalculating normals and whatnot seems to help, nor can I figure out how to make the neck's normals blend into those of Skyrim's bodies.

[Seijin8]

8 hours ago, Mud said:

I've tried that, but it didn't seem to work out at all, even if I also tried to adjust my neck's UV map to follow the bottom of the Skyrim necks' UVs. There are enough gross parts in my OBJ's render that I'd say I'm fucking up the models' normals somehow as I fiddle with them, but nothing I can find online about recalculating normals and whatnot seems to help, nor can I figure out how to make the neck's normals blend into those of Skyrim's bodies.

 

That sucks.  Sorry, but I am deeply unqualified to assist on this.  Best of luck on it.  Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will see this.