How to use Gimp to create a (good) normal map?

[jonas_opines]

Seriously, this is almost a fatal flaw, but I can't make a decent normal map for the life of me. Everything is too shiny, or flat coming out, and just looks like plastic, like an action figure or something. I've hunted down a number of tutorials from time to time, and just can't quite get it to look up to my standards. Does anybody have any pointers on what to do to create a good normal map for Fallout, that gives an appearance of texture without going too reflective.

[SnuggleFoxy]

I'd look into using CrazyBump.

 

http://www.crazybump.com/

 

Type it in google for a few nice tutorials. This programs is excellent for making normal maps and even allows you to make it very detailed or not detailed at all. It all depends on the look you're going for.

 

Enjoy,

 

**Edit**

 

I figured I'd save you a couple of clicks. Here's a good tutorial on how to us it.

 

[jonas_opines]

Cool, I'll take a look at that this weekend.

[Guest endgameaddiction]

I've seen that program like 4 months ago and gained my interest in learning to texture. It looks like a real easy way to make normals.

[BruceWayne]

You might want to check out this free program as well. I think you need high polygon models of your objects to use it though.

 

http://www.xnormal.net/1.aspx

 

You can create normal maps with the .dds plugin as well, based off your diffuse map. The results are not as good compared to the method above, but depending on the object you want to do, they might be sufficient. You can control the amount of "bumpiness" with a number of settings, with varying results.

 

If your textures are way too shiny, you probably haven't altered the specular map. You can find the specular map in the alpha channel of the normal map. It's greyscale and controls the amount of shine your texture has. (It's been a while, but IIRC black= no specular, white=max. specular) 

[jonas_opines]

Thanks for the tip, Batman, that helped me get on the right path. I'm still not exactly sure how to find the specular map, but I did find a tutorial that helped me jury-rig my own using layer masks on youtube, made by a name that I seem to recall from the nexus.

 

[BruceWayne]

I always use PS and currently don't have Gimp installed so I can't make a helpful screenshot, but if you look around the 7:00 mark in the video you've linked, you have a panel at the bottom right corner called channels. IIRC, the same thing is in GIMP. You can see that the alpha channel is at the the bottom of the list. Just select it and deselect the color-channels and you should be golden. This is only the case for existing textures though, if you made a normal map form scratch, there might be a chance that you have to add this channel yourself.

[jonas_opines]

Yeah, I know how to find that window, but it's odd -- when I see it in the window panel it's solid white, but when I deselect view on all the other channells it's solid black and I wasn't able to alter it using any obvious methods. Well, at least I know I'm on the right track, so I should be able to figure it out, errr, eventually.