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I am trying to make my volcano. I want to apply a normal texture to the volcano, which is very warped as I am currently using Project from View (Bounds) as my UV map unwrapping. This is currently the texture for my volcano model: enter image description here

It currently works well for just the image texture: enter image description here

However, applying a normal does not work so well, and looks more like this: enter image description here

This bad normal mapping is due to the steep gradient. This is why I need to somehow warp my original UV map to fit the simple Unwrap, which currently looks like this: enter image description here

How can I manipulate my original image texture to fit the new UV map from the old UV map? Is there a tool for this in Blender?

Sorry for all the images. I am trying to make this question as clear as possible. If you have questions, please ask me!

George_E
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  • From the question it seems that you want to make texture according to new UV map shown on the second screenshot. In this case you're searching for baking https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/15510/possible-to-bake-texture-to-new-uv-map. Just make sure to choose UV map used for baking from as renderable one (second answer there). – Mr Zak Dec 15 '18 at 20:56
  • @MrZak The reason I want to change the UV map is because I want the normal to be from roughly the side, and not just projected from the top (causing the problems listed in the question). Will baking the UV map actually help BOTH the normal and the texture? Or will it only affect the image texture? – George_E Dec 15 '18 at 20:58
  • I don't think I understand the phrasing here. Baking will help to create yet another image texture which will be made according to UV map you'd like it to be fitting, that's it. Normal map is something different usually, more like image tinted in blue which stores orientation of normal vector for given face from highpoly so not sure how it's applicable here. – Mr Zak Dec 15 '18 at 21:24
  • @MrZak I'm trying it now - the reason why I was mentioning normal maps is because I wasn't sure if the new UV map would just affect the texture. I will let you know if I have any problems. – George_E Dec 15 '18 at 21:26
  • @MrZak After trying it for so long, I still can't get it to do what I am looking for. – George_E Dec 15 '18 at 22:21
  • UV map isn't and isn't supposed to affect texture, it is used to "flatten" the 3d mesh to wrap the 2d texture onto it. I don't get the problem since there is some phrasing or terminology problem which is important when explaining. I suggest looking into another answer on baking here https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/13383/how-to-bake-texture-from-multiple-overlayed-uv-islands-to-individual-uv-islands and editing your question with details of why it is not fitting your pipeline – Mr Zak Dec 16 '18 at 00:18
  • @MrZak Yeah sorry, I am very new to Blender and started about a week or two ago. All I am looking for in my end result is to not have a problem with my normal mapping - stated in the third image. I believe this is due to the steep gradient. So as you say, I was trying to flatten the 3D mesh. However, I am having problems that I can't align it. I was looking for a method to transform the texture by looking at the before and after of the UV map, to warp it. Hope that makes sense. – George_E Dec 16 '18 at 11:52
  • You're not actually experieneing bad normal mapping here, the normal map is doing exactely what it is supposed to do - if I am interpreting the 3rd image correctly. What exactely is causing you issues? – IAmGettingTiredOfAliases Dec 17 '18 at 18:14
  • @IAmGettingTiredOfAliases I forgot to update this post - I will add the answer for me now. – George_E Dec 17 '18 at 18:25

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In the end, I resulted to keep the same texture as it is and not warp it. Then I experimented around a bit until I found my solution.

  • First of all, I increased the resolution from 900px to 2048px - this will allow more pixels on steep gradients, reducing the stretch.
  • Next, when creating my normal map, I set the blur to -10 to make the normal have a gradual change, to create more of a rounded impression than a square-shaped dent.

Following these steps will get you the desired result.

George_E
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