Normal Map Lighting Setup in 3DS Max
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Objective: This tutorial gives a quick and easy way to render tangent space normal maps in 3DS Max using directional lights. This comes in handy when render to texture doesn't do the the trick -particularly when transparencies are involved. To the right are the results of a sphere over a plane rendered from the front viewport.
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Lighting Results
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1. Create a new file in 3DS Max, and add 5 Free Directional Lights in to the scene.
2. We are going to be rendering from the front, so in the front viewport rotate the lights so one points up, down, left, and right. The position of the lights is not important. The rotation is important, but I like to keep things neat. Shown below.
3. In the top viewport rotate the final light so that is faces up. Lighting from the front.
4. The color, intensity, and overshoot of each light will now be set. Set the lights as shown below. Settings will roll out when each light is selected.
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5. Now that the lighting is set up, lets make the material to apply to the objects you want to create a normal map from. Open the Material Editor with M, and select the first slot. Change the following.
6. That is it! Now if you apply the material to an object and render from the front viewport, a normal map will be the result. I recommend setting up a camera that faces the front, that way results will be consistently scaled.
If you want to make sure you did it right, create a plane and a sphere in the front viewport, position them at the origin, and scale to your liking. Make sure to apply the material! Then render from the front viewport. Your result should be similar to below. If the colors look off, recheck the light settings.
If you want to make sure you did it right, create a plane and a sphere in the front viewport, position them at the origin, and scale to your liking. Make sure to apply the material! Then render from the front viewport. Your result should be similar to below. If the colors look off, recheck the light settings.
