Baking Normal And Ao Maps For Games With 3Ds Max

Learn the pro tips and tricks to render perfect normal and AO maps in 3ds Max - faster and without errors every time!

What you'll learn

Learn to bake flawless normal maps and ambient occlusion maps

Learn tips and tricks to speed up your rendering pipeline and methods for baking high-to-low meshes

Requirements

Autodesk's 3ds Max - but many of the course principles apply to other 3d packages as well

Description

In this tutorial we’ll show you all the necessary tips and tricks when baking Normal and Ambient Occlusion maps in 3ds Max, as well as explain the ins and outs of how to get perfect bakes from a high res mesh down to a game-ready low res mesh. About the Instructor: Alec Moody has been working in the game industry since 2003 and has contributed to numerous titles as a freelance artist. He holds a B.F.A. in photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design and Co-owns Handplane 3d LLC.

Overview

Section 1: Baking Normal Maps Tips and Tricks!

Lecture 1 Introduction

Lecture 2 Silhouette

Lecture 3 Detail Scale

Lecture 4 Tapering

Lecture 5 Floating Geometry Waviness

Lecture 6 Triangulation

Lecture 7 Projection Modifier

Lecture 8 Triangle Stripping

Lecture 9 Projection Modifier

Lecture 10 Material ID Projection

Lecture 11 Mirroring Overlapping Geo

Lecture 12 Different Type of Normal Maps

Lecture 13 Vertex Count and Smoothing Groups

Lecture 14 Normal Map Baking Walkthrough

Lecture 15 Course Conclusion

Intermediate to advanced students interested in learning the tips to render flawless normal and AO maps