How to make a realistic Golf Ball.

[MJW]

@Manc, in the first Merge step, make sure Clipboard Height Offset is set to -0.5. I suspect it wasn't.

[Manc]

Thanks @Pixey and @MJW

Will try again tomorrow.

Cheers.😉

[Manc]

Hi @MJW

I get as far as this then it goes all pete tong.

Any advice appreciated.

Cheers.😉

Just so you know I refuse to give up.🙃

[MJW]

50 minutes ago, Manc said:

I get as far as this then it goes all pete tong.

Any advice appreciated.

 

I'm not sure what you mean. Did you try the steps up to image you posted last time, but making sure to set Clipboard Height Offset to -0.5 the first time the Texture Merger is used? And if you did, did you end up with an image like the one in the tutorial? You should have, I think, because not setting Clipboard Height Offset in the first merge appears to be the only difference  between what you did and what you should do.

 

I suggest that in each step where you run a plugin, you double-check to make sure the controls are set to the values I specify. By "double-check," I more or less mean to go through the list the first time, setting the controls, then go through a second time verifying them. There are a lot of controls, so it's easy to miss one. I assume you know (but I'll say it anyway) that to set the value of a numeric control, you edit the control's numeric value, then click on a different control to cause the value to be entered.

[Manc]

Sorry @MJW pete tong is rhyming slang for wrong.😀

When I complete the last part I am getting this.

 

 

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by Manc

[MJW]

That looks nearly correct, though I believe you don't have Antialias checked. Antialiasing doesn't matter in those early steps, but it's probably better to set it so it exactly matches my image. In the tutorial, it's set in every step from the beginning.

 

[Manc]

No @MJW

What I'm saying is, I get this after the final stage.

I am not getting the solo height map.

Plus I have checked to antialias.

Thanks for your time.

[MJW]

12 minutes ago, Manc said:

What I'm saying is, I get this after the final stage.

 

Oh, I see what you mean. Did you set Repetitions to 100 in the Texture Smoother before clicking Smooth twice? I think maybe it was still set to 1. The effect of smoothing should be very obvious as soon as you do it.

[Manc]

Thanks Mate.

I think I did but you may be right.

Will give it another try tomorrow.

Cheers.😉

[lynxster4]

I finally got around to trying this @MJW.  Excellent tutorial.  Though, I'd like to point out when making the expanded dimple map,

'Merged Height Alpha Source' needs to be set to 'Clipboard Alpha'. I couldn't understand why I wasn't getting an image at all. 

Here is my attempt:   Thank you very much for the tut. 🤩

 

[MJW]

29 minutes ago, lynxster4 said:

I'd like to point out when making the expanded dimple map,

'Merged Height Alpha Source' needs to be set to 'Clipboard Alpha'.

 

Excellent job, ! I really like your custom logo.

 

I'll look into the problem you mention later today.

[MJW]

Thanks for finding that problem, @lynxster4!

 

I figured out why you encountered it while I didn't.  If you start from scratch, as I did, and don't name the layers, the canvas at the point it's expanded is a Background layer, so when it's expanded, the new region is filled with white instead of transparency. Obviously that's not something I should rely on, so it needed to be fixed. There are two possible solutions: change the alpha source in that step, then change it back in the next Texture Merger step; or use the Clipboard (No Displacement) Height Merge Method, which automatically uses clipboard alpha.  I chose the second, which seems slightly simpler. I am a bit bugged by a slight inkling that I originally had a reason for selecting Clipboard over Clipboard (No Displacement), but I can't think of what it could possibly be.

[Pixey]

10 hours ago, MJW said:

but I can't think of what it could possibly be.

 

What's weird is that @lynxster4's problem didn't happen to me when I did the tutorial 🤔

[Manc]

I still can't do it.

Gave up for now.

Will probably come bake to it.😀

[Djisves]

Thank you @MJW, master of mathematics and everything to do with the height map plugins  🙂, for responding to my request and publishing such a detailed tutorial and for going the extra mile to explain in all the why's. This tutorial has improved my understanding of the height map plugins, although I still don't understand most of their workings. I finally got round to it:  

I also followed your advice and increased the lightness of the black logo.

 

On the Making the Dimple Height Map "phase", the second time we use the Texture Merger plugin, your instructions read "Clipboard Height Scale: 1.0 (restored to default)".

I think this instruction bullet should be removed so as not to cause confusion, because the Height Scale setting is already at default; we not change it the first time we used the plugin.

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by Djisves
correct image version

[MJW]

Terrific job, @Djisves!

 

I'll look into you suggestion  about the Height Scale.

[MJW]

12 hours ago, Djisves said:

On the Making the Dimple Height Map "phase", the second time we use the Texture Merger plugin, your instructions read "Clipboard Height Scale: 1.0 (restored to default)".

I think this instruction bullet should be removed so as not to cause confusion, because the Height Scale setting is already at default; we not change it the first time we used the plugin.

 

I changed the tutorial to remove the setting. I conjecture that at one time the first step modified the height control, but then I changed it so it didn't. Thank you very much for noticing that and pointing it out.