Normals and AO's

[Tidal]

Hey guys, I've been trying to dip my toes into the modding world by learning some simple texture modding for attires, but I can't find a tutorial specifically for editing/creating normal and AO files. Does anyone know of a good one? I followed one on Tekken's website which doesn't really go into much depth and focuses on faces rather than attires. 

[4 Life]

I've pretty much just copy-paste this straight from a message, the same message I've sent to a few people who have PM'd me regarding this stuff after seeing me speak about it a bit on the forums.

This is gonna be a bit of a long ass post, but if you keep it bookmarked you can work through it bit by bit to learn.

For creating normals, this was posted a while ago by AlcLegacy (which someone else linked me to a while ago and I learned the basics from) and tells you the basics of using the Nvidia plugins and settings:

On 26/05/2016 at 4:24 AM, AlcLegacy said:

 

As for normals, I'll tell you the process and attach a Picture of the settings I use.

So you're going to need the Nvidia Normal Map Filter plugin for photoshop (should be an easy find on google)

1. Open the color texture
2. Make sure you flatten the image
3. go to Image>Mode>16 Bit Channel
4.  Desaturate the texture
5. NVidia Tools > normalmapfilter    then copy these settings

What I always do though is, never make a normal from scratch.

Always work off the original Normal file that came with the object as a base, so you keep all the wrinkles and bumps that came with the original texture. So for example, if you used Undertaker's bottoms then you'd also be wise to extract his textures and take bottoms.dds, bottoms_n.dds and bottoms_ao.dds, then open up those and edit them to basically scrub out any logos and replace them with your own where needed.

For putting new bits into the main normal layer, I tend to basically convert the main texture to normal map using the settings above, copy and paste it over the original normal for the object I'm using, and then cut out the bits that I need before deleting all the bits I don't need - so for example, converting a DX shirt to an nWo shirt, I'd edit the texture to replace the logo, then when I'm done, convert it to normal map via Filter > Nvidia Tools, then copy-paste it over the normal image, and use the eraser tool with a soft edge to go around the edge of the nWo logo and delete the rest of it. So you're also covering up any old parts of the original normal image that are changed in your new texture, too.

If there are any parts of the image that had logos that are now plain in your main texture, use the Clone brush tool to alt+click on blank parts in the Normal image to make a swatch of them, then paint over the logos to basically copy the blank texture over them, you might also copy some wrinkles and stuff over which is a nice bonus. You can alternatively just use the paintbrush tool to blank any existing logos out.

That said, if you ever need certain parts to stand out more or less then just remember this when you greyscale the texture before you convert it to normal map - darker parts will be flatter to the object, while whiter parts of the image will be raised. So if you had a black shirt with a white logo and just converted that to normal map, the logo is gonna be a bit 3D looking on the shirt rather than just looking painted on, whereas if it was a white shirt with a black logo and you converted that then the logo would look like it's embossed into the shirt. You can also change the Scale in the settings to make it more 3D - the higher the scale, the more 3D looking it'll be.

Obviously, you don't save your texture when you've finished messing with it to use in your normal file, you're just using it as a base and then you close it without saving it when you're done with it

Now for the alpha layer in the normal file which controls the shine. If you click on the Channels tab on the right of the Photoshop interface when you have your Normal file open, you'll see a few colour channels and then an alpha channel - you can use that channel to manipulate what parts are shiny and what parts are not. So you could have a completely matte top with shiny logos. You'd generally make a separate image using your top.dds as a base, then paste it into the alpha channel.

1) Open your top.dds and top_n.dds in Photoshop

2) In your top texture, press shift+ctrl+U to desaturate. It will go black and white. Now you edit the colours.

3) Make anything you want to be dull/not shiny, black

4) Make anything you want to be quite shiny, grey

5) Make anything you want to be very shiny, white

6) As you see, the darker something is, the less it shines. The lighter it is, the more it shines.

7) When you've finished editing it, do NOT save over your top texture

8) Press ctrl+A to highlight the whole image, and press ctrl+C to copy it all

9) Now go into your tops_n.dds. On the right you will see three tabs. Layer, Channels and Paths. Click on Channels.

10) Now click on the bottom layer in the Channels, called alpha. This should bring up another black and white image similar to the one you just made, if you created your normals correctly. This is the layer that makes things shine/not shine.

11) Press ctrl+V to paste in your copied image.

12) Save your top_n.dds with DXT5 setting, then it's done. Now you can create your new texture archive and inject it into the pach and so on

Remember, dark colours in the alpha = no shine. Medium/grey colours = medium shine. White colours = lots of shine.

 

As for the ao files, again you'd use the original file and just edit that. You often might not even need to edit the ao file, open it up and see if there are any logos or anything on it that need removing and if not then just use it as it is. This file can be used to change how 'metallic' an object looks - with this file, white - matte, whereas black = metallic and shiny. So basically the opposite to the alpha channel in the Normal. Basically, if you've edited the alpha channel, tried it in game and it still needs more shine, then you can either edit this file to give more shine to certain parts or use Shader Mutator to change the material.

For example, when I was making my Mark Henry mod, I needed the silver and gold parts to be shiny. Edited the alpha to change those parts white in the alpha layer so they'd have maximum shine, but it still wasn't quite enough. So then I pasted the image over the ao file image, inverted it so the logos were now all black, then used the Magic Eraser to get rid of all the white parts so I could then see the rest of the ao file behind the black logos, and because the logos were black in the ao file they shone more in-game.

Using Shader Mutator on the object can also help to increase or reduce shine on the whole object by making it appear more metallic or matte, respectively.

 

Hope that all makes sense, might need a few reads and a bit of read-as-you-go to take it all in but once you learn it you can pretty much make things as shiny or plain as you like them, and 3D or embossed as you like. For example, if you look at my Booker T attire pack video in my modding thread, the boots have buckles - those buckles aren't an object, they're textured on, and the Normal file was manipulated to make the buckles stand out more. I basically blacked out everything but the buckles, made them white, then when converting it to normal map I changed the settings - the higher the Height Generation and Scale, the more something will pop out. If you have a play around with the settings then you can see how much or little a part of the image pops out in the preview.

Likewise in the same video, near the end you can see on one of the attires that the buckles are chrome effect, all done in the Normal alpha and Ambient Occlusion files  

Good luck

[Tidal]

A long ass post was exactly what I was looking for! This will hopefully be a huge help. Thank you