How to create normal maps in photoshop

If you are creating your own textures in BRIO, it may be necessary to upload a normal map. Normal maps fake the lighting on the surface of your material, creating the appearance of bumps and other 3D textures without adding extra polygons to your scene. You can use Photoshop to create your own normal maps for use in to BRIO.

Begin with a high quality image of a texture, such as this crumpled paper image downloaded from textures.com.

Open the texture in Photoshop.

Switch to the 3D workspace. 

In the 3D panel, select Mesh from Preset. Choose a shape (for this example, we’re using a sphere).

Click Create

Photoshop will create a scene with your texture loaded onto a 3D shape.

In the 3D panel, click the object with the name ending in _Material.

The properties panel will change to show options corresponding to the selected material. The texture is loaded into the Base Colour channel.

At the bottom of the properties panel, click the button labeled Normals and select Generate normals from base colour

The Generate Normal window will pop up. You can adjust contrast levels and related settings here. 

Click OK.

Your normal map will be created and applied to the 3D shape. 

To use your normal map in BRIO, you’ll need to export it as an image. To do this:

Click on the Normal button again in the properties panel. Select Edit Texture. The texture map will appear in a separate window. 

From here, choose File > Export and select .PNG or .JPEG (.PNG is recommended as it is a lossless format)

To upload to BRIO:

Select the object where you want the texture applied. 

Open the Material Editor. Click the upload button next to the “Normal” slider.

Upload your image. 

Your texture will be applied to the object. You can use the Material Editor to adjust the strength. Your map will be saved to your library automatically for future use.