CrazyBump = Better, Faster Art
by Russell Fincher · 01/28/2008 (4:17 pm) · 37 comments
This has been mentioned a couple of times in the forums, but I just wanted to put my two cents in. I'm totally in love with this program called CrazyBump. It's a free (edit: for now) utility that not only replaces the horrible old Nvidia Photoshop filter for turning color maps into normal maps, but also creates specular, "fake" ambient occlusion, and parallax maps from either a diffuse map or a normal map. Yep, you can start with either diffuse or normal maps. For instance, I created a dinosaur model in Zbrush and exported the normal map. I loaded the normal map into CrazyBump, and also loaded my model into CrazyBump to view my work, and exported a specular map, and ambient occlusion map to bake into the diffuse texture, which really helped accentuate the scales on this guy:
I will never open the Nvidia plugin again. Ever. I'm going to uninstall the Nvidia plugin today, burn in to a CD, and drive over it with my car. No art tool should ever have a preview so terrible. And CrazyBump has sliders to allow you to adjust your maps that actually have words that make sense. I love it. This is a middleware tool that fills an old art pipeline void very, very well. Sure Max and Maya can render shadow and specular maps to texture, but not with the ease of use of this thing. The preview is indispensable.
I will never open the Nvidia plugin again. Ever. I'm going to uninstall the Nvidia plugin today, burn in to a CD, and drive over it with my car. No art tool should ever have a preview so terrible. And CrazyBump has sliders to allow you to adjust your maps that actually have words that make sense. I love it. This is a middleware tool that fills an old art pipeline void very, very well. Sure Max and Maya can render shadow and specular maps to texture, but not with the ease of use of this thing. The preview is indispensable.
About the author
Art Lead at Sickhead Games focused on dev tools and prototyping, instructor/advisor at several Dallas colleges and universities, Associate Developer with GarageGames, moderator at gameproducer.net, champion of avant-garde game art at uncommonassembly.com.
#23
Keep up the great work it looks amazing
01/31/2008 (3:32 pm)
That video is crazy it looks better then Turok for the 360 and PS3, are you using speedtree and if not where did you get the trees from?Keep up the great work it looks amazing
#24
Thanks Kory! Yes, we are using SpeedTree for the foliage, and the groundcover is a mix of meshes and billboards... and incidentally Physx rigs to give the dinos dynamic physics on their tails, neck flab, and full ragdoll situations. We've really just recently been able to get our tech to a more mature stage, but much more to come.
My favorite part, that you can't even see... soft water edges. It's the little things.
01/31/2008 (3:46 pm)
Tom hijacked my thread about map creation to satisfy his own dastardly whims! Thanks Kory! Yes, we are using SpeedTree for the foliage, and the groundcover is a mix of meshes and billboards... and incidentally Physx rigs to give the dinos dynamic physics on their tails, neck flab, and full ragdoll situations. We've really just recently been able to get our tech to a more mature stage, but much more to come.
My favorite part, that you can't even see... soft water edges. It's the little things.
#25
01/31/2008 (4:32 pm)
The video looks great, and really, who doesn't want to be a T-Rex at least some of the time? :)
#26
02/01/2008 (3:49 pm)
Video is great, almost makes we want to hit the arcade looking at the controls for that T-rex :)) or maybe someone will come up with a dino sim coin-op. hmmm. 
#27
Thanks for showing this to us!
02/01/2008 (5:16 pm)
This is a great tool, I had been using the Nvidia plugin and had to keep redoing the work.Thanks for showing this to us!
#28
02/10/2008 (3:53 am)
yeah it is a great tool, I've been using if for several months and will buy it as soon as it comes out for free beta.
#29
03/24/2008 (1:31 am)
That is a beautiful dinosaur, very impressive!
#30
06/03/2008 (10:43 pm)
For anyone still watching this thread, CrazyBump 1.0 is out. Get out your wallets. I'm a little shocked at the price, as others have commented elsewhere, but I'll still buy it. Ryan has created an amazing tool here.
#31
06/03/2008 (10:49 pm)
I was shock by the price to but maybe i can get education discount
#32
I've been using it for quite a while now, and I'm extremely pleased with it.
http://www.shadermap.renderingsystems.com/
11/19/2008 (7:09 pm)
I just wanted to point out that for the more budget-restricted folks like myself, [ShaderMap Pro] is a great and less expensive alternative to CrazyBump. It also creates the AO, Normal, Specular, and Displacement maps from just a diffuse texture.I've been using it for quite a while now, and I'm extremely pleased with it.
http://www.shadermap.renderingsystems.com/
#33
I'll have to look how shadermap compares. Crazybump produced quite stunning results really.
11/19/2008 (7:31 pm)
Yeah I was a bit surprised at how expensive it was too. I spent over $500 for a commercial 3dsmax exporter to use with our Ogre Based engine and thought that was a lot but worth it. I can't really justify paying more than $50 - $70 for an indie version. I'll have to look how shadermap compares. Crazybump produced quite stunning results really.
#34
In addition to Takuan's mention of the less expensive Shadermap Pro, a lot of people are using the free XNormal.
11/19/2008 (8:55 pm)
Thanks for adding that, Takuan. It kills me that CrazyBump is a little less than half the price of Photoshop, but only has a small fraction of the capabilities. Something does seem a little off-balance there. However, it's a wonderfully concise and effective app.In addition to Takuan's mention of the less expensive Shadermap Pro, a lot of people are using the free XNormal.
#35
you mention using
"Physx rigs to give the dinos dynamic physics on their tails, neck flab, and full ragdoll situations"
could you elaborate a bit more on this?
I'm very interested in the "full ragdoll situations" bit
12/04/2008 (5:32 pm)
@Russell Fincher,you mention using
"Physx rigs to give the dinos dynamic physics on their tails, neck flab, and full ragdoll situations"
could you elaborate a bit more on this?
I'm very interested in the "full ragdoll situations" bit
#36
12/04/2008 (5:35 pm)
Hey deepscratch, physics is getting a little off-topic for this plan. Email me at the address in my profile and I'll tell you all I know. :)
Ryan Clark
I'm sorry that the new beta isn't working for you. I hope I can fix the problem!
Could you email me with more information about what happens on your Vista machine?
For example, does CrazyBump display any kind of message, or does it simply fail to launch?
thanks very much,
-Ryan Clark
ryan@crazybump.com