How to create a simple normal map from a black and white image?

[yamaou777]

 I am currently creating a flooring material for a house using Substance 3D Sampler. My goal is to create a material that faithfully reproduces the texture provided by the manufacturer. You can check the actual product from the following

URL: https://www.biz-lixil.com/tv/play.php?id=6299564492001&_ga=2.17258105.1334541333.1682478485-19245869...

First, I resized the texture (2750×1378px) provided by the manufacturer to 1800×600px using Photoshop to match half of the actual size of 3600mm×1200mm, and imported it into Substance 3D Sampler. However, when I imported it using image to Material (AI Powered), it became a bumpy material like the reference image. It looks like an old and dirty flooring, far from the product.

The joints of the flooring should have a clear indentation, and the board part should have a flat finish with no bumps. So I thought of preparing a black and white image that clearly separates the joint and the flat board parts, and use it to create a normal texture in Substance 3D Sampler.

If possible, I would like to create the normal texture from the black and white image, and the roughness texture from the flooring image, and be able to adjust them later. However, I don’t know how to do that. I would appreciate it if you could tell me how to solve this problem.

Thank you very much.

[Lory3D · Accepted solution]

Hi,
Regarding your needs and goals, you don't need to create a specific mask.
Just to play with the Image to Material (AI Powered) and find the right values, here's the values that worked at my end with your image:

The Geometry details options are very usefull when Image to Material (AI Powered) is aggressive, and it let a lot of control. And the Geometry equalizer property helps to flatten the surface too.

Feel free to add the wood finish filter, to add some warnish feel (the Matte warnish Finish type should be great for your project).

 
And you can adjust de Height scale in your 3D View:

 

[yamaou777]

Thank you for your answer. I imported the texture with Image to Material (AI Powered) as you told me, and adjusted the parameters, but I couldn’t get the quality I wanted. Specifically, there are unwanted bumps on the flat board, and the joints are uneven and dirty. I think it’s best to create and adjust normal maps from black and white images in photoshop, import the texture and normal maps separately into SubstanceSampler, make minor adjustments, and output the final material. …But this workflow doesn’t make much use of SubstanceSampler. Also, photoshop’s normal map creation feature will be discontinued in the future. I hope that a feature that can create simple and beautiful normal maps from black and white images will be added in the future.

Here is a possible reply in English:

Thank you for your feedback. I’m sorry to hear that you are not satisfied with the quality of the material generated by Image to Material (AI Powered). There are some limitations to this feature, such as not being able to remove unwanted bumps or create uniform joints. We are working on improving this feature in the future, but for now, you may have better results with your own workflow using photoshop and SubstanceSampler. We appreciate your patience and understanding. Please let us know if you have any other questions or suggestions.

[yamaou777]

I used a translation site and copied and pasted it verbatim, so it contained the unnecessary text "Possible replies in English are as follows." which is not necessary.
Sorry.

[锦阳28647702ckwc · Accepted solution]

I hope I didn't misunderstand your point. I inverted your black and white texture and replaced it with a height map. I also added a height to normal filter to generate a normal texture and freely adjust the normal intensity. I think this is a good solution!

[yamaou777]

Thank you for your response. The method you taught me was very effective. It was the most effective method that came closest to the result I wanted. Thank you!

[锦阳28647702ckwc]

You can check my files!