Bake normal maps with Turtle

To bake normal maps with Turtle

1. Set up your surface transfer. See Set up a surface transfer with Turtle.
2. Open the Texture Baking View window (Windows > Material/Texture Baking Editors > Texture Baking View).
3. In Texture Baking View toolbar, click to open the Texture Baking Settings.
4. In the Baking tab of the Texture Baking Settings, do the following:
   • (Optional) If your object will be deforming, like a character, ensure that Coordinate System in Outputs > Advanced Settings > Normal Map is set to Tangent Space.
   • In the Outputs > Shader Outputs settings, disable Full Shading and enable Normal Map.
5. Open the Texture Baking View window (Windows > Material/Texture Baking Editors > Texture Baking View).
6. In the toolbar, click to initiate the texture baking.

   The Texture Baking View window shows the resulting image, and the file is placed in the turtle/bakedTextures directory. This normal map can now be assigned to the low res object.

7. Select the low res object and open the Attribute Editor.
8. Select the object's material node.
9. In the Common Material Attributes section, click the map button next to the Bump Mapping attribute.
10. In the Create Shading Node window that appears, select a File texture.

    A bump2d node appears in the Attribute Editor.

11. In the Attribute Editor, expand the 2d Bump Attributes section of the bump2d node.
12. Set Use As to Tangent Space Normals.
13. In the Attribute Editor, expand the File Attributes section of the File node.
14. Click the folder next to the Image Name attribute to select the normal map in the turtle/bakedTextures directory.
    The normals from the high res object appear on the low res object, creating the illusion of surface relief.

    Tip: If you do not see the normals, ensure Hardware Texturing (Shading > Hardware Texturing) is turned on.

Related topics

• Bake textures with Turtle
• Transfer color textures with Turtle
• Set up a surface transfer with Turtle