Using VrayDistanceTex as Bump or Displacement

[kosso_olli]

Hello,
recently tried to render an image of some leather stitching in a car interior. We have done this with displacement maps of a single stitch before, that worked quite good. Now I was thinking of doing it with geometry, as displacement raised rendertimes. I placed the stitches along the seam, and now I need to make some holes and bumps where the thread goes through the leather. I got the dark holes to work using the VrayDistanceTex, looks quite good. For the bumps I'd like to plug another version of the DistanceTex into the bump slot, but that doesn't seem to do anything. It works if I place that in a DiscplacementMod, but the displacement is looking to "edgy", not really smooth. Thats because of the shape of the thread, it looks basically like a scaled down and twisted rope. Is there a way to blur the DistanceTex or get it to work using bump?

Regards

Oliver

[kosso_olli]

Here is an image of what I'm all about. As you can see, the thread is slightly bent. The holes are recessed from the surrounding leather surface, and that is what I want to achieve using bump or displacement.

Regards

Oliver

[BBB3]

The way I do this is by baking an AO pass on the leather with the stitches geometry attached. This will give you a nice falloff around the stitches which you can use as a good point of departure to paint your bump map.

[vlado]

Use the VRayColor2Bump texture, if you want to use VRayDistanceTex as a bump map; you can find it here: http://www.spot3d.com/vray/misc/

Best regards,
Vlado

[kosso_olli]

BB3: Thanks for the tip. This means I have to render an extra pass for that? Would like to avoid that, as I want to keep the workflow as simple as possible. I think I will try to plug the vrayDirt directly into the bump slot.

Vlado: Thanks for the pointer. Will try that out as soon as I am back in the office. Can I also try to throw a vrayDirt into that map?

[BBB3]

No, not a pass, just a AO render to texture. in Max 2011+ it's just a click of a button.

[kosso_olli]

Good to hear. How exactly can I do that?

[BBB3]

go to rendering menu, render surface map, it'll give you a choice of all sorts of maps, including AO.

[kosso_olli]

Thanks again, will play around with it.