rich_is_bored@Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 8:27 am : http://www.crazybump.com/This application warrants it's own discussion thread. Yes, it's that impressive. Thanks irishlostboy.
It's considered bad practice to render a normal map from photo source unless the lighting is diffused like on an overcast day. Case in point, here is a example of bad source material ...
Notice how the light is coming from an acute angle and creating harsh shadows. Generally speaking, trying to render a normal map from such a source would produce results like this ...
And in large part the same is true when using CrazyBump without taking advantage of it's unique features. Namley it's image analyzation features which can recover 3D detail from what seems like even the worst of source materials.
Check this out. Here's what a few minutes of playing around can do to the source image above ...
The resulting normal map is a fantastic starting point. A bit of hand painting would be required to really make it shine but a majority of the detail has been captured. I'm not entirely sure how it works but I'm very impressed.
iceheart@Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:02 am : 
Way cool! Thanks for showing us this!
g0th@Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:40 am : Yes this program is great.
mikebart@Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 12:22 pm : Its pretty good, I've used crazybump combined with a normalmap baked from a very basic high poly model and gotten pretty good results on an elaborate column, you can do this in the normals mixer.
pbmax@Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 3:41 pm : from the example you gave, its an improvment but still leaves a lot to be desired. ideally, you'd like to end up with a nice grey scale height map and i'm just not seeing it...
Hostyle@Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 7:45 pm : Yeah this program is good, but the latest version refused to run so I downgraded to the old one. Does anyone know when it hits the final stage?
CrimsonHead@Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 8:18 pm : That's cool hopefully that will save some time, that Nvidia filter is practiaclly useless for photosource stuff.
irishlostboy1980@Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 8:58 pm : CrimsonHead wrote:
That's cool hopefully that will save some time, that Nvidia filter is practiaclly useless for photosource stuff.
just a bit of info on this prog.
similarly to the nvidia plugin, crazybump is ideally meant to be run with a B+W height map, not a straight unprocessed photograph. dont expect magic from this prog. it is no match for what you get baking a normal map from a 3d model, nor can it "create" 3d information from a terrible texture. its place in the pipeline is between your 3d app "3dsmax etc" and your 2d editor "photoshop etc". it is best used for creating the "dirt" part of your normal map, then blend in the "baked from your 3d app" normal map within crazybump. be warned. blending two normal maps together will lose some of intensity from both maps, so dont mix in too much dirt.
as for when is this program going to be finished? there is no word on that yet. it is not near done. if you have a problem with installing the prog, or any technical issues with it, (not "how do i make my thing look like the starwart thing") email ryan with your issue. that way he can deal with it for the next release. ideally, if you have anything to say to ryan, sign up to the forum. probably be less hassle for him that way.
this is a great tool that does what it is supposed to do. if you want something that makes the normal maps from 3d models (most 3d apps support this function natively, but if your doesn't) try "xnormal" i haven't tried it, but it is meant to be good. crazybump replaces the need for nvidia filter.
rich_is_bored@Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 12:24 am : pbmax wrote:
from the example you gave, its an improvment but still leaves a lot to be desired. ideally, you'd like to end up with a nice grey scale height map and i'm just not seeing it...
That last image isn't a height map. It's a preview of the resulting normal map in use.
If I were to make a height map with CrazyBump using the same source image, it would look more like this ...
pbmax@Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 1:59 pm : ok, that looks better.
kat@Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:22 pm : pbmax wrote:
ok, that looks better.
I think you're missing the point of crazy bump (?), it produces normal maps and displacement maps (there might be talk of heightmap but given that that's what you should be using to get the best results in the first place it kind of defeats the object of using CB to produce them). As rich_ said, the grey image is *just* the viewport render material
scumm@Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 8:42 am : Wow, what a cool little app. Thanks for posting this.
BJA@Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:13 am :