WEEK 9: Texturing & Shading 1: WIP, Hydrant, continued

We'll do a brief recap of the first 2 assignments.

Next we'll introduce two more types of maps:
Normal and Specular.

Normal Maps are like Bump Maps on steroids - they create the illusion of extra detail using not just height information, but angle as well.
 
Specular Maps define the shininess of different materials. 

All three examples at right are just simple planes. Their appearance has been changed using diffuse, normal, and specular maps.
 
There are many ways to generate normal maps. 2 common tools for creating them from our diffuse textures are CrazyBump and nDo.  We'll go through how to install and use both of these tools in class. You will need them to complete your homework. If you can't install them at home you will need to complete your assignment at school.

Click here to download nDo

nDo tutorial:

http://www.philipk.net/tutorials/ndo/ndo.html

You should also be learning how to bake them from high-res models. For this assignment we will be focusing on creating them from images. This technique can be combined with baked normals.

Please always bring a stylus - they are required for painting your texture maps.