Troubleshoot Normal Mapping

Cause

You enable the Transfer Maps editor’s Connect maps to: New shader / Connect maps to: Assigned shader option and your video card does not support the High Quality Rendering shading mode.

Normal mapping results are only visible in the scene view when in High Quality Rendering shading mode.

Solution

Use mental ray rendering or a plug-in hardware shader to preview the normal map.

Cause

Your source surface has non-zero transformations and you transferred your normal map in Object Space.

Solution

If your source and target objects overlap in the scene view, set the Transfer In option to World Space and then bake your map again.

If your source and target objects do not overlap in the scene view and the Transfer In Object Space option produces no result, then move your source and target objects so that they are on top of each other, freeze their transforms (Modify > Freeze Transformations), move them back to their original positions, and then bake your map again.

Cause

Your source or target object has overlapping UVs.

Solution

Ensure that your source and target objects have clean, non-overlapping UVs and make sure that their UVs lie within the 0 to 1 UV range.

Cause

Your map resolution and sampling quality may be too low or the affected region of your map may not occupy enough UV space.

Solution

In the Transfer Maps editor’s Maya Common Output settings, do the following:

• Increase the map’s resolution. The Map Width and Map Height values determine your map’s resolution.
• Increase the map’s Sampling Quality.
• Increase the map’s Filter Size.
• In the UV Texture Editor, increase the UV mapping coverage for the affected regions of the map.

Cause

By default, when you select Lighting/Shading > Transfer Maps, the map is always saved to the project you are currently in.

This is true even if you set a new project. When you open the Transfer Maps editor and click any of the map icons to create a transfer map, the map is still set to the previous project.

Solution

Click the Remove Map button to remove the transfer map and click the map icon again to add the map to the scene. Now the map will be set to save to the correct project folder.

Cause

Your map resolution and sampling quality may be too low or the filter size may be too small.

Solution

In Transfer Maps editor Maya Common Output settings, do the following:

• Increase the map’s resolution. The Map Width and Map Height values determine your map’s resolution.
• Increase the map’s Sampling Quality.
• Increase the map’s Filter Size.

Cause

The regions of your map that are absent lie beyond the Max search depth or are excluded by the Search Envelope.

Solution

In the Transfer Maps editor Output settings, increase the Max search depth or change the Search Method.

Cause

When the Max search depth for your map is too high, then surface detail from one side of the source object is projected to the opposite or wrong side of the map.

Solution

In the Transfer Maps editor’s Output settings, reduce the Max Search Depth.

Causes

• You do not have enough RAM.
• Maya has insufficient memory to complete the bake operation for your large models and maps.

Solutions

• Bake only one output at a time.
• Only load source and target meshes into your scene.
• For high resolution objects, display them in wireframe shading mode.

Cause

Your Search method may not include all the source meshes’ surface detail or your Max Search Depth may be too low to include all the layers of the source geometry.

Solution

Increase the Search method and Max Search Depth so that they include the missing detail.

Cause

Not enough space between UV shells.

Solution

Ensure that there are at least a few pixels in between all UV shells, and between each UV shell and the edge of the texture. This problem is most likely to occur when creating normal maps.

Cause 1

The target surface is larger than the source surface.

Solution

Ensure that the target surface is smaller than (recommended) or the same size as the source surface.

Cause 2

Your geometry includes very long polygons.

Solution

Remove the very long polygons by adding additional subdivisions along the polygon, or, select the Match Using: Surface Normals option in the Advanced Options section of Lighting/Shading > Transfer Maps.