Hey, this is a video that I made to explain normals, normal maps and bump maps, specifically from the lens of blender. I wanted to make this because while there are others in this general vein, I haven’t seen any that look at the whole topic holistically and pragmatically, not just looking at what, but also at why?
Link to the example material:
https://freepbr.com/materials/steel-plate1/
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:20 What are normals?
01:53 Smooth shading
03:19 What are normal maps?
04:57 Where do we see normal maps?
05:32 A brief tangent (how normal maps work)
06:16 How to use normal maps
07:31 What about bump maps?
08:06 How to use bump maps
08:34 Use distance not strength (IMPORTANT)
09:22 Bump maps vs. normal maps
10:45 Recap
12:03 Outro
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While watching this, you might notice that my vocal delivery isn't very good. You might also notice I recorded this at 4 am. Maybe I would have eaten fewer words if I had any semblance of a sleep schedule.
