To create a grey scale bitmap in photoshop I have been selecting image → adjustments → black and white.
Is this the correct way to create a grey scale bitmap for bump mapping. I just want to make sure I’m using the correct technique before I proceed to make anymore bumpmaps.
There’s many ways to convert a colour image to grayscale in Photoshop, all useful for creating bumpmaps. Image>Adjustments>Desaturate is probably the most commonly used.
I usually turn down the saturation and then adjust either Contrast/Brightness or Levels to the point where I have the level of detail in the bump map as I want.
The sharpest way to do this is by using a gradient map on your image. First step is to make sure your colors are on default by pressing shift-D. then on the layers tab go to “new adjustment layer” and pick gradient map. Then just flatten and save as. It will be better than just desaturating the Pix.
thank you very much, that was simple enough. Do these different methods of greyscaling really make a great deal of difference to the overall bumpmap? if so can anybody explain why?
A bumpmap isn’t simply a greyscale version of the diffuse map. You wan’t to pick out the details you want to appeared raised. There isn’t *one* correct way of doing it. It depends texture to texture.