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What Does Normal Maps On vs. Normal Maps Off Mean for Skin?

tristanthorne1997tristanthorne1997 Posts: 241
in New Users

I have tried renders with them Off and On and can't see any difference!

Normal.JPG
256 x 589 - 37K

Comments

  • SpottedKittySpottedKitty Posts: 7,232

    On people models, Normals add fine detail to otherwise smooth skin — bumps, wrinkles, pores, scars etc. This amount of detail isn't really visible unless you're quite close in, though. Was your render a close-up, or pulled back to show the whole figure in the image?

  • poorman_65poorman_65 Posts: 140

    I wondered the same thing! You learn something new every day.

  • tristanthorne1997tristanthorne1997 Posts: 241

     

    Spotted Kitty, it wasn't too close, kind of a full body portrait. I will try again on a closeup of the face on Monday when I am back in front of my Daz-Capable PC.

    So does that mean that if I turn Normal Maps off, I will get a faster render (though sacrificing detail)?

  • SpottedKittySpottedKitty Posts: 7,232

    The render probably won't be all that much faster — Normals don't actually produce fine bumpy detail, they only simulate it.

    One thing to watch for in close-ups of a figure, though; if you've added hair, that will slow the render quite a bit as you get closer. It's a juggling act, doing some things slow the render down, doing other things speed it up.

  • tristanthorne1997tristanthorne1997 Posts: 241

    I figured hair probably slowed things down. Thank you for the replies!

  • SpottedKittySpottedKitty Posts: 7,232

    It's the transparencies used in the hair that does it; as you bring the camera closer, the hair takes up more of the render image area, so the actual rendering of the hair takes longer and longer. Note that this happens with anything that uses transparencies, it's just that hair tends to use lots of transparencies layered over one another, which really eats up render time.

  • PetercatPetercat Posts: 2,321
    SpottedKitty said:

    It's the transparencies used in the hair that does it; as you bring the camera closer, the hair takes up more of the render image area, so the actual rendering of the hair takes longer and longer. Note that this happens with anything that uses transparencies, it's just that hair tends to use lots of transparencies layered over one another, which really eats up render time.

    Wow. Thanks for the explanation, I didn't know that.

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