Gradient to normals?

[Jaycee]

When you convert a gradient to normals is does not convert correctly compared to its values. It comes out flat even though the normal node is set to high values. Is this a bug, or should I do it in a different way? I am on the newest version.

[Celine Dameron]

Hi Jaycee,

Which version of Designer do you use ?
On which OS ?

I tested this on Designer 2017.2.1/Windows 10 and it works.
Did you try to plug your safe transform directly into the height to normal node (without the gradient map) ?

Thanks !

[Esger van der Post]

The normals look correct to me. Even though there is a height difference, all surfaces should be at the same angle, so you will get a uniformly colored normal map, apart from some 1 pixel wide lines where the next gradient starts.

[Jaycee]

you guys are right... I made a mistake, it does work.  (embarassed)

Thx for your help!

[Master Heavy 0]

I have to hook up here, cause ist the same Question or my limit understanding of gradients and normals.

so my question @eggfruit is - why is that looking right - in my understanding of zero to one values of a gradient the normal map should look stepped and from bottom left to top right in a similar manner to the gradient he did..

i nearly have the same problem with 2 gradients in different directions and one is coming out nice and the other is flat....

[Nicolas Wirrmann]

I don't see any problem: one pattern goes up then down, so there are two directions, the other one (the simple gradient) only goes up, the direction is constant so does the normal.

Keep in mind the normal map is only a direction while the height map in an elevation. Imagine a vertical arrow that follows the surface displaced by the height map and look at the arrow from the top. If the height map slope is constant, the arrow orientation won't change.

[Master Heavy 0]

So it's not a translation of black(0) and White(1) to a Y or Z value(up)?

and
how do I get the vertical gradient do behave like the horizontal one in terms of translating to normals?


with a bit of trial and error I got it to work and here is the solution. For sure heightToNormal does the Job and I tried that bevor but without any luck - now it's working, so I made a small test.


--> Gradient Linear 1 does not work.
--> Gradient Linear 2 works.
--> Gradient Linear 3 does not work.

here is the Picture:

[Nicolas Wirrmann]

It looks like my first explanation was not clear..

Everything is working fine, you are apparently misinterpreting what a normal map is: it encodes only a direction.
Here the slope is constant, there is no variation, the angle of the slope is the same everywhere so the normal vector/direction is the same everywhere.
You get two "colors" (directions) when using the Gradient Linear 3 because there are two slopes and you get a variation of color when using Graident Linear 2 because the slope direction is changing all along the shape.