Planar Projection Methodplanar projection

Normal bump mapping involves two objects: a high resolution, polygonally detailed object as the source for the normal bump map information, and a low resolution target to receive the map and use it to appear more finely detailed than it really is.

The objective in this tutorial is to assign the target object, a simple two-dimensional plane, the complex surface detail of the source: a tile of mortared stones.

The texture to be baked onto the plane will consist of a normal bump map, together with a diffuse map. You will then add a height map to give the plane the appearance of depth, and render it with the mental ray renderer.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to:

Set up the map projection using the render to texture controls.
Define diffuse, normal bump, and height maps, and bake the resulting texture onto a destination object.
Preview the baked result in a viewport.

Skill level: Intermediate

Time to complete: 1 hour

Preparation for This Tutorial

If you have not already downloaded the tutorial files (MAX scenes and other assets), download them now and unzip them into a project folder called \Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 tutorials. See Where to Find Tutorial Files.
On the Quick Access toolbar, click (Project Folder) and set your current project to Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 Tutorials.

Topics in this section