What are Normals?

In this program agnostic series we learn about Normals and the part they play in our 3D art. By the end of this course you’ll have a deep understanding of Normals with the ability to debug and solve almost any normal map baking scenario.

This 3 hour series consists of 10 chapters:

Chapter 1: Normals – What are they?
We learn about Normals and the role they play in surface construction.

Chapter 2: Normals – What do they do?
We dive into how Normals can be manipulated to alter the look of a surface.

Chapter 3: Projection – How does it work?
We explore how Normals are used to represent complex geometry on flat surfaces.

Chapter 4: Texture Baking Basics.
We finally take a look at baking our high polygon model to a texture. We apply what we’ve learnt thus far to debug and solve almost any projection issue.

Chapter 5: What are Tangent Space Normals?
We build our own tangent space Normals and learn how they work to better understand why they’re used.

Chapter 6: Why your Normal map bakes are warped.
We take a look at why low polygon Normals play a huge part in how high polygon detail is projected onto a surface.

Chapter 7: Baking with support edges.
We take everything we’ve learnt and bake a clean normal map using support edges.

Chapter 8: Baking using Normal map blending.
We take a different approach and blend two normal map projection methods to create a clean map.

Chapters 9 and 10: Baking using Normal map blending in Maya and Blender.
We replicate the normal map blending technique in both Maya and Blender to illustrate these methodologies are program agnostic.

SKILL LEVEL:

This series assumes the viewer has some prior 3D art creation knowledge. As we start from the simplest explanation of Normals, the viewer should have a comprehensive understanding of Normals by the end.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How long do I have access to the course materials?

You can view and review the lecture materials indefinitely, like an on-demand channel.

Can I take my courses with me wherever I go?

Definitely! If you have an internet connection, courses on Udemy are available on any device at any time. If you don’t have an internet connection, some instructors also let their students download course lectures. That’s up to the instructor though, so make sure you get on their good side!