-problem with masking on normal layer

[thewolfen]

Hi all,

First i've attached some images. They show me painting on an imported normal map, on the normal map layer. Pics 1 AND 2 are using a mask in the right menu(adhered to the uv's of the mesh). Pic 3 is using the layer normal map masked by a different layer(layer 6) which is the same mask as before but i don't see the masking working.

Also does smooth normals work with a normal mask? I have not been able to get that to work, it seems to smooth the entire area, i think it would be cool if it smoothed within a masked out region.

The question about 1 and 2 is, why does the new paint look so weird on the imported normal map, it seems to not have the same effect on it as painting normals on an original layer. Also the color picker seems not to work on the normal layer?

Sorry for the lots of questions,

thanks

[Andrew Shpagin]

Normalmap is usual color layer except it is blended in special way.

You can paint directly on normalmap layer, but I am not sure it is useful because you will paint color on tangent normalmap and it is not very controlable thing. You can use smooth with SHIFT - it will work. It is better to paint details on other layer to add color or small details.

So, what is your purpose? Why do you need paint on normalmap layer directly?

[akira]

I think Thewolfen was trying to add details to his mesh using existing normal maps.

And I encountered a problem when trying to directly paint on normal map layers:

The viewport will not update automatically if you directly paint/erase on layers at normal map blending mode.

Paintings did affect the mesh, just no updating of the viewport.

Only the smoothing tool works fine.

[thewolfen]

Correct Akira,

I find smoothing(like Andrew had mentioned as well) works the best. The reason from painting on the original normal map layer is to correct any problems that might exist by generating normal maps from images. I tihnk i could probably use smoothing to solve most of my problems as long as i can also apply a mask to the original normal layer. Otherwise i can just paint on other new layers.

So i update to 10.05 and things work much better, plus there are more layer properties/modes available, very nice Andrew.

I am still trying to figure out why the masking seems to be broken, i will try several types of images and see if i can get the normal map original layer to mask, thanks for the help,

t

[thewolfen]

As far as i can tell i cannot mask to the original normal map layer. I think it wold be cool to be able to smooth to a mask for the original normal map layer, or else maybe take that option out for the layer?

I was able to mask to a tga for all other new layers, just not the original normal map one.

The reason why i think this would be good is that i can quickly(in photoshop) define an area for the original texture that i want to mask.(maybe i want all my dark areas to be smoothed for example). Then i could import this mask on a new layer, mask the original imported normal map to it and smooth all those areas at once?- anyways i think it could be useful,

t

[thewolfen]

Sorry for yet another reply, but i've been playing around more with painting on the original normalmap layer and it seems to me that it's almost easier to paint in the texture editor window for what i was trying to do above?-still would be useful to have a mask but that texture editor window is awesome! and allows me to do what i wanted pretty much.