Why should you use normal maps? Keep in mind that Lumion is a real-time rendering engine and, as you saw previously, there is the need to keep a balance between detail and geometry. This allows a 2D image to represent depth and Lumion uses this depth information to fake lighting details based on the color associated with the 3D coordinate. A normal map consists of red, green, and blue colors that represent the x, y, and z coordinates. The map on the left is a bump map and you can see that the level of detail is not the same that we can get with a normal map. The following screenshots show the clear difference between these two maps: A bump map uses a color range from black to white and in some ways is more limited than a normal map. And what is a normal map? Firstly, a normal map is not a bump map. The purple square you just saw is where you can load the normal map. What about the second square? The one with a purple color? Let’s see the answer in the following section. When you click on the Choose Color Map button, a new window appears where you can navigate to the folder where the texture is saved. This is made possible by using the Choose Color Map button, as shown in the following screenshot: However, instead of thinking, “I only have 600 materials and I cannot find what I need!”, you need to look at the materials library also as a template to create other materials.įor example, if none of the brick materials is similar to what you need, nothing stops you from using a brick material, changing the Gloss and Reflection values, and loading a new texture, creating an entirely new material. The first option is obvious you are using Lumion and it makes sense using Lumion’s materials, but you may feel constrained by what is available at Lumion’s material library.
Let’s have a look at each one of these options and see how they can help you and when they best suit your project. Creating materials using Lumion’s Standard material.Using the imported materials that you can create on your favorite modeling application.There are three options to work with materials in Lumion:
Working with materials in Lumion – three options The viewport will try to show the final result, but there’s nothing like a quick render to see how the material really looks when Lumion does all the lighting and shading calculations. For example, if you change the main texture, the sphere will continue to show the previous material.Ī good practice to tweak materials is to assign the material to the surface, use the viewport to check how the settings are affecting the material, and then do a quick render. One word of caution: the material preview, which in this case is the sphere, will not reflect the changes you perform using the settings available.
If you need more control over the material, click on the More… button to have access to extra functionalities. The interface was simplified, showing only the most common and essential settings. The Lumion team has also made an effort to create a better and simpler interface, as you can see in the following screenshot: More than 600 materials are already prepared to be assigned directly to your 3D model and, by default, they should provide a realistic and appropriate material. You can find excellent information regarding PBR on the following sites: The good news for us as users is that these materials follow realistic shading and lighting systems to accurately represent real-world materials. Lumion always had a good library of materials to assign to your 3D model, The reality is that Physically-Based Rendering ( PBR) is more of a concept than a set of rules, and each render engine will implement slightly differently. In that case, how can Lumion help you and, most importantly, what are the best practices to work with materials? Let’s have a look at the following section which will provide the answer. Textures can bring detail to your surface that otherwise would require geometry to look good. It’s not difficult to understand that textures are another essential part of a good material, and if your goal is to achieve believable results, you need textures or images of real elements like stone, wood, brick, and other natural elements. (For more resources related to this topic, see here.) In other words, a material defines how the light interacts with the surface, and textures can help not only to control the color (diffuse), but also the reflections and glossiness. A material defines the optical properties of an object when hit by a ray of light. In the 3D world, materials and textures are nearly as important as the 3D geometry that composes the scene. In this article by Ciro Cardoso, author of the book Lumion3D Best Practices, we will see materials, and why they are essential.