Normal bump mapping involves two objects: a high-resolution, polygonally detailed object as the source for the normal bump map information, and a low-resolution target to receive the map and use it to appear more finely detailed than it really is.
The objective in this tutorial is to assign the target object, a simple two-dimensional plane, the complex surface detail of the source: a tile of mortared stones.
The texture to be baked onto the plane will consist of a normal bump map, together with a diffuse map. You will then add a height map to give the plane the appearance of depth, and render it with the mental ray renderer.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to:
- Set up the map projection using the render to texture controls.
- Define diffuse, normal bump, and height maps, and bake the resulting texture onto a destination object.
- Preview the baked result in a viewport.
Skill level: Intermediate
Time to complete: 1 hour
Preparation for This Tutorial
- If you have not already downloaded the tutorial files (MAX scenes and other assets), download them now and unzip them into a project folder called \Autodesk 3ds Max 2015 tutorials. See Where to Find Tutorial Files.
- On the Quick Access toolbar, click
(Project Folder) and set your current project to Autodesk 3ds Max 2015 Tutorials. 