The following describes the properties that appear in the Extract Texture Maps window. The properties that appear are dependent on the extraction type specified in the Maps to Generate section.
Displays the name of the model to receive the extracted ambient occlusion, normal, or displacement map. This model must have UV coordinates.
The target model is usually the lowest subdivision level of a model with multiple subdivision levels. If the current subdivision level displayed beside the target model’s name is not desired, it can be changed using the subdivision level drop-down list located to the right of the target file name.
When extracting ambient occlusion maps, the currently active subdivision is used for the AO extraction. If a different subdivision level is desired you must step up or step down to that level, then extract again.
The final normal or displacement map produced represents the difference between the target model (low resolution) and the model(s) specified as the source model(s) (high resolution).
Use this option when extracting to multiple targets and you want one map extracted for each individual target model. This setting is useful when the target models use different materials or when the UV texture coordinates occupy the same UV tile location and producing one shared map would not be possible.
Smooths the positions of interior UVs of the target model during the texture extraction. Smooth Target UVs only smooths when the Smooth Target Model option is turned on.
Some image rendering software (for example, Pixar’s RenderMan®) have the ability to smooth the UV texture coordinates on a mesh during rendering to improve the results.
Turn on Smooth Target UVs if you know the model and textures will subsequently be rendered using a feature like this.
Displays the name of the model(s) to extract normal or displacement maps based on what is selected in the 3D View. The source model (high resolution) typically contains the sculpted details to be extracted into the map(s). This model does not require UV texture coordinates.
If the current subdivision level displayed beside the source model’s name is not desired, it can be changed using the subdivision level drop-down list located to the right of the source file name.
Determines the quality of the final ambient occlusion map based on multiple shadow maps used for the calculation. Preset values include: Fastest, Fast, Normal, Good, and Best. A higher quality setting increases the number of shadow maps, produces a higher quality map, and increases the time to generate the ambient occlusion map.
Specifies the name of the extracted map(s). The default name AO(%s).bmp substitutes the name of the model unless a custom file name is specified (for example, AO(head).bmp). The AO prefix is useful for differentiating the map from other paint layers within the diffuse channel.
Click the ... icon to display the Save As browser to set a directory. Determine a file format from the Save As Type drop down menu and type the file extension in the File Name field. Supported file formats include: .png, .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .tif, and .tga.
Automatically imports the generated ambient occlusion map as a new paint layer within the Diffuse channel of the assigned material. This lets you preview the ambient occlusion map on the selected model(s) and iterate the generated map with different settings if required.
When turned off, the extracted ambient occlusion map is saved to a user-specified directory without displaying as a layer on the model.
Controls the size of the shadow maps for the occlusion map calculations. Values are preset at 256 x 256, 512 x 512, 1024 x 1024, 2048 x 2048, 4096 x 4096. The shadow maps are not user accessible and are discarded after the generation of the occlusion map.
Increasing the Shadow Map Resolution produces a more detailed occlusion map and increases the time to generate it. In general, set the Shadow Map Resolution to the lowest value that produces an occlusion map of acceptable quality. The default is 1024 x 1024.
Controls the contrast between shaded and non-shaded areas in the ambient occlusion map. Decreasing the value reduces contrast producing more mid-tone gray values in the map. Increasing the value increases contrast producing tones that are more white and black. The default contrast setting is 0 (neutral contrast) with the lower and upper range being -1 and 1.
When the Coordinate Space property is set to Tangent this sets how the tangent space vectors are calculated so the extracted map is compatible with other 3D applications (left-handed or right-handed). This setting is ignored when the Coordinate Space property is set to Object or World space. Options are:
Specifies the name for the extracted map(s) that get output. Select the format from the Save As Type drop down menu in the file browser that appears. If the target model contains UVs within multiple UV tile spaces, that is, outside the 0-1 range, Mudbox will automatically create separate maps that correlate to each UV tile. The file naming will be as follows: <mapname1>_u1_v1.tif, <mapname1>_u2_v2.tif, and so on.
