Using Grayscale Images for Displacement
You can create monochrome image maps with popular image-editing tools such as Photoshop or GIMP. By using grayscale height maps, you can push and pull the surface of a 3D model to achieve the ideal look you desire.
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A low polygon 3D plane. |
Diffuse map applied. |
After being applied with Displacement map. The faces are pulled up or pushed down. |
Using Grayscale Images for Displacement
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Prepare an object.
Note:The object can be characters, accessories, or props.
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Make sure the object is selected and switch to
Modify >> Material >> Texture Settings
(in this case, the object has already applied with
Diffuse and Blend textures).
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Double-click the Displacement channel and load a grayscale image. You will be asked
to set the type of the loaded image.
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Choose the Height Map (Grayscale) radio button and click OK to load the image.
The object will then take shape. You may need to adjust the UV Tiling values to best fit the displacement image to the object.
The displacement texture is imported.
UV tiling values are adjusted.
Note:-
The displacement channel pushes and pulls the mesh up or down according
to the level of the grayness. The white means to pull up while the black
means to push down.
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When you import a grayscale image into the Displacement channel,
Character Creator also load it into the Bump channel as well.
Because although the Displacement channel sculpts the meshes,
Character Creator still take it as the original mesh, which leads to
no shading generated. Therefore, without the
Bump texture (not suggested), the fold of
the object can not be seen.
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By importing the grayscale to the Bump
channel, the shading of the object can be shown to
increase visual fidelity.
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The displacement channel pushes and pulls the mesh up or down according
to the level of the grayness. The white means to pull up while the black
means to push down.
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In accordance to the rule described in the note box above, the black area
concaves the mesh, which can cause the original shape to be thinner and
the connecting lines broken.
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Go to the Tessellation section.
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Increase the Tessellation Level value to add more details for the faces.
The original topology.
Tessellation value increased (more details are shown).
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The Multiplier slider is able to increase or decrease the
drops between the ups and downs. In another word, to determine the
distances between the high and low vertices.
Multiplier = 1.
Multiplier = 2.5.
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The Gray-scale Base Value takes a color within the
grayscale image as the base of the mesh. The vertices covered by the
colors above the base will be pulled up, while the other will be pushed down.
The default value is 50, which takes the middle color of the grayscale image (127, 127, 127) as the base (the vertices covered with the color darker than the base will be pushed down, causing the broken issue described above).
Set the Gray-scale Base Value to 0 so that every vertex will be raised up, this ensure the object intact without breaks or holes.
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Increase the Tessellation Level value to add more details for the faces.
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Adjust the three sliders to optimize the shillouette appearance of the object.
