Modelling and backing displacement maps

Hurdy3D

Hey,

I exportet a g8f base model to blender.
Added a multi res (4) and set multi res for viewport to 0.
Than I modeld via sculpt some HD details.
I added for each surface an image node in the shading tab.

But if I bake the displacement, it's getting just grey, while backing the normals seems to work (WTF?).

I did it with the g8f figure like in this tutorial:


If I do it with sphere, like in the tutorial, the displacement bakes fine.

Did I miss something?

Krys Kryngle

It's finicky.  I think the trick is to make sure you create the image, then add the image to the shader editor, and while it is selected, hit bake from multi-res.  Having multiple materials on a single mesh makes it a little more difficult.  I usually have 3 windows open; the 3d viewport, image editor to create the new image, and the shader editor to add the node. 

It also helps if you combine like materials (you can use diffeomorphic or probably some other tools) so the face, ears, and nose are all one material, since those three use the same UV map.

If I remember correctly, I deleted everything I didn't need (eyes, teeth, nails), combined like materials, then separated the mesh by material.  Now you have, for example, arm objects, with the arms uv, and you can bake from multires with a single newly created image.

Finally, if you watch the 'Bake Perfect Displacement Maps' by Default Cube, he says we should always use EXR's when baking displacement maps.  The compression that occurs with jpg's and png's will affect the accuracy of the displacement.

Hope this helps.  Let us know how you make out. 

Hurdy3D

Thank you for you answer.

The crazy thing is, it seems to work when I export a G8 figure WITH HD details and a higher sub-d.
If I do so, I just have to click "Rebuild Subdivisions" to generate the base mesh and baking the displacements works fine.

BUT if import a G8 figure as a basemesh without and add Sub-D via "Subdivide" in Blender, backing displacement seems not to work (but normals work).

Maybe this is some kind of Blender bug?

However, I also figured out, that if I bake displacement or normals, there are height informations backed in, even if I did not modified anything on a G8 figure. This is maybe also a Blender bug.

Propably I will continue with normals. They seems to work and are good enough for what I want to do in this case.

Using EXR didn't help.
I have the image node selected, while baking