Holomatix - Adding Bump Maps to 3D

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Adding Bump Maps to 3D

This tutorial (click here to see) demonstrates how bump maps are created for a 3D model and how these can be manipulated within Blaze 3D Studio.

Source File Listing

blaze_3d_cube.bla – Blaze 3D project file
blaze_cube.mb – 3D model in an AliasWavefront Maya format
blaze_cube_texture.jpg – image used to texture the 3D model
blaze_cube_bump.jpg – bump map image

Please note that it is only possible for you to import this AliasWavefront Maya model directly into Blaze 3D Studio if you already have AliasWavefront Maya installed on your computer.

View the sample 3D Model

To view the Blaze 3D cube:

Open Blaze 3D Studio
Open the file blaze_3d_cube.bla via File/Open and navigate to the location of this file. Alternatively, simply drag the .bla file onto the application.

Once the project file has opened, look at the cube and rotate it around so that you can see all 6 faces and the visual effects used on each face. If you look closely, it appears to have been made from millions of small polygons to include these effects. However, this cube is made from just 6 polygons! This shows how bump maps can be an effective method of adding minute detail to an object which would otherwise require a large number of polygons.

Create a Bump Map Texture for Relief Text on a 3D Model

To apply a bump map to a 3D model in Blaze 3D Studio, following the below steps.

Create a greyscale image of the texture. (Refer to blaze_cube_bump.jpg and blaze_cube_texture.jpg in the Maya 3D Files directory) In this instance, only black and white are used to give the illusion of a raised design for the text and logo.
Apply this greyscale image to the bump map channel in the 3D software application.
Open Blaze 3D Studio > Create new project > Import 3D file or double click on blaze_3D_cube.bla
Expand the Materials tree in the Project Explorer on the left panel.
Left click on the material surface 'blaze_cube' to open the Surface Settings Window dialogue. A screenshot of this project is shown below.

Figure 1: Screenshot of Material Shader Window with Bump Map Strength Slider

The Inspector panel shows you the options available for which lighting effect should be used on a material. In our example, the “Bump Map” checkbox box has been selected and the correct images have been used for the texture and bump map image.
The Inspector also allows you to alter the intensity of the bump map by adjusting the Strength sliding scale. A value of 0 has no effect and a value of 2048 has a maximum effect. Experiment with this slider and see how the slider effects the intensity of the bump maps on the blaze cube.

Adjusting Bump Map Strength

The images below illustrate a range of bump map strength values and the corresponding effect on the object.

Figure 2: Comparison between Different Bump Map Strengths

The left image shows the bump map with using an intensity of 35 on the strength slider.
The middle image shows the bump map with using an intensity of 100 on the strength slider.
The right image shows the bump map with using an intensity of 255 on the strength slider.

As you can see, the Blaze 3D logo in the left image has shallow relief, yet is faint and not well defined. The Blaze 3D logo in the right image has extreme relief, but is harsh and the quality has deteriorated leaving a white residue effect around the edges. A well-optimised value for this Blaze 3D logo on this model is 100 as shown in the middle image. The logo looks clean and well-balanced.

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