Masking Normal Maps

poiisons

I apologize if this is an amateur question, but I've had some difficulty finding tutorials that cover exactly what I'm trying to do in ShaderMap 4.
I have a normal map (Map A) that came with a 3D model that I am editing. I am trying to mix this normal map with a second normal map (Map B ) that I am hand-painting in ShaderMap 4 (Basic--I might upgrade if I can figure out how this works!). The texture that this normal map is affecting is in a toony style, with black lines and hard edges. I am trying to use masks to mask out only the area of Map B that I want to paint. However, when I paint on Map B, strokes that fall outside of the mask still show up on the preview, as well as in the final mixed map (created using Blend Normals). I have an Imgur album here that might explain what I'm describing a little better.

Any advice y'all can give is much appreciated!

RSI

Thanks for your question. I’m out of the office the rest of the night. I’ll reply tomorrow with a method to do what you are asking about with normal map masking. Thanks for your patience.

Neil

poiisons

Thank you Neil! I look forward to it.

RSI

Good morning,

Below is an image demonstrating how to apply a mask to Normal Editor normals when blending to an existing normal map. In this project I have a blank map (this will be your existing normal map from a 3d model) as well as a normal edited map I scribbled on. Finally I have added the Blend Normals map.

The mask should be applied to the Blend Normals map. Input 1 (Base normals) of the Blend Normals map must be set to your existing map and Input 2 (Source normals) must be set to the painted normal map. You can drag any Input Marker to see the name of the Input. For maps with more than 1 input, you can drag the Input marker on top of another to switch places with it.

Best of luck,
Neil

poiisons

Hi Neil! I created an entirely new project and tried your method, and I'm still having the same issue. Is it possible that there's something wrong with my mask, or is this a bug? I'm attaching my project setup as well as the original mask file, which I created in Krita as a PNG.

(I'm also having some issues saving my projects. Should I post a new thread for that, or just add that in here?)

RSI

Your PNG is perfectly fine, I tested it working.

Have you made certain that the Base Map is assigned to INPUT 1 on the Blend Map?

• Click and drag the little circle on top of the base map (when the blend map is selected) to identify the INPUT. It needs to be INPUT 1 and the "New Map" should be INPUT 2. It looks like that is exactly what the problem is.
• You can switch the INPUT 1 and INPUT 2 by dragging one circle onto the other as demonstrated in the image from my previous reply.

poiisons

Yes, it seems that was the problem! Thank you so much, it's working now!

My other issue is, when trying to save a project that has previously been saved, I get a "Delete Data Directory Failed" error. I can get around this by "Saving As" and giving it the same name that it previously had, but that's a little tedious.

RSI

I'm glad you were able to get the normal blending working! Way to go.

As for the project save error. It looks like ShaderMap is unable to delete the data folder before re-creating it.

Something on your system may interfering with ShaderMap's ability to delete folders and files. I see that you are saving to OneDrive. I wonder if this is part of the problem. Does the error still occur when saving to a different location such as the Desktop?

poiisons

Interestingly enough, saving is now working on both the Desktop and in OneDrive, but I'm not sure why! Thanks again for your help.

RSI

You are very welcome, I am glad things are working for you now.

My only thought is that possibly you were trying to save the file while it was being uploaded to the OneDrive cloud servers, and that was interfering with ShaderMap making changes to the files.

All the best poiisons!

Neil