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Expand All Collapse All
  • Introduction to 3DCoat
  • Getting started
    • System requirements
    • Activating 3DCoat
    • Startup error
      • Startup error Mac
    • Upgrading permanent license
    • Linux Setup
      • Linux initial setup per-user installation
      • Linux initial setup for system
      • Tablet setup
      • To GTK3 from GTK2
    • Folders Structure
      • Custom documents folder
    • Different Forms of “Resolution”
    • Import and Export
    • Applinks in 3DCoat
      • Blender 4.1 applink
        • Blender with the Applink in Linux
      • Blender 4.2/3 applink
      • Max Applink
      • Houdini applink
      • Lightwave uplink
  • Navigation
    • Opening Dialog (Quick Start Menu)
    • Navigation Panel
    • Camera and Navigation
      • Customize Navigation as Blender
    • Viewport Navigation Gizmo
    • Left tool panel
    •  Activity Bar
    • Navigation using 3DConnexion devices
      • How to compile Spacenavd on non Ubuntu distro
    • Stylus doesn’t work in sculpting
    • Hotkeys
  • Interface
    • File
    • Edit
      • Calculate Curvature
      • Calculate Occlusion
      • Light Baking Tool
      • Preferences
    • View
    • Symmetry
    • Textures
    • Calculate
    • Layers
    • Freeze
    • Hide
    • Bake
    • Curves
      • Curves editor
      • Fill with mesh layer
      • Scale of imported curves
    • Windows
      • Tabbed and Popup Panels
      • Controls
    • Scripts
    • Addons
    • Capture
    • Help
    • Room Customization
    • Modify or Create new Room
  • Brush Components
    • Brushes general use
      • Create alpha brushes and decals
      • Making alpha from current sculpt
      • Create a Brush from a 3D Object
      • Create brushes based on Curves
      • Load photoshop .abr brushes
    • Strokes
      • Curves Popup Menu
    • Brush Options panel
    • Brush Top Bar
    • Conditions Limiter
    • Strips Panel
    • Stencils Panel
    • Smart Materials
      • Add new images or materials
      • Attach a Smart material to a layer
      • Import Quixel Material
    • Presets for Brush alphas
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        • Per Pixel Painting
        • Displacement Painting (Micro-Vertex)
        • Ptex Painting
        • Surface Painting (Vertex painting)
      • Importing Into the Painting Room
        • Initial CC subdivision
        • UV Set smoothing
        • Sharp (hard) edge
        • Lock Normals
        • Load new UV layout After Model Changes
        • DAZ Genesis models into 3DCoat
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        • Bake Paint menu
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        • Right-Click Menu
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        • Surface tools on Voxels
        • Voxel Adjustment Tools
        • Volumetric Painting
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        • Voxel Objects Tools
          • Voxel Primitives & Import Tools
      • Surface mode
        • Surface tools
        • Surface custom tools
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        • Splines model creation
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      • Comparison of different roughness values
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      • Turntable
      • Fakebake the lighting -non PBR-
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        • Tweak
        • UV panel
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        • Selected
        • Entire Mesh
      • Loft surface example by Fluffy
      • Blockout by Poeboi
      • Import Zbrush Polygroups for UV mapping
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Lock Normals

580 views 0

Written by Carlos
August 20, 2023

Import and Lock Normals

Lock Normals: Don’t recalculate normals at import, use normals directly from the object file. Otherwise, new faces will have the overall normal orientation of that original face.

If you subdivide mesh this option will be ignored.

When you import mesh for the per-pixel painting, you may lock normals for the best compatibility with the normalmap baked for this set of normals.

Lock normals are needed because unlocked normals are auto-calculated.
Lock is required if you want custom normal line unrelated to neighboring vertex position.
Lock normals on an object when you needed to set custom normal orientation, and didn’t want geo edits to mess up the normal direction already set.

As example custom normal orientation is needed to get a certain effect from a vertex shader in a game engine.

  • Import and Lock Normals
  • Import & Lock normals
  • Baking from retopo room and Paint room

Import & Lock normals

3DCoat smooths the normals at import, but you can also Import & Lock normals.
But if you have not locked normals during the initial stage you may import and lock them later using this command.

Baking from retopo room and Paint room

There is one difference between baking from retopo room and Paint room.
Mesh in retopo room has no split normals (or smoothing groups, or sharp edges) unless you will not specify it or crease angle in baking/import dialog during baking.

So the only way to bake external mesh with sharp edges (smoothing groups) is to import it in Paint room and bake from paint room bake menu:
Retopo->Mesh->Take mesh from the Painting room: Move mesh from the Painting room into the Retopo room.

Blender/Substance normal map looks like baked on subdivided mesh, so normal map has only high-frequency details.

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Related Articles
  • 3DPrint
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  • Right-Click Menu
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