I'm not sure I get why you plugged the normal map on all the BSDF materials. Since the purpose is to make the metal look l...

Question

I'm not sure I get why you plugged the normal map on all the BSDF materials. Since the purpose is to make the metal look like it's under the paint, I would have put it only on one of those two materials. How come they don't both appear on the same level if they have the same normal map? What am I missing?

Answer 1 · 2016-03-30T15:21:08Z

Kent Trammell replied March 30, 2016 3:21pm

It sounds like your head is in the right place, in that adding the normal maps on specific layers only can have a desired effect, like a dust bump map only on the clear-coat layer would make sense.

But I don’t understand what you mean by “How come they don’t both appear on the same level if they have the same normal map?”

Answer 2 · 2016-04-05T02:37:53Z

g

replied April 5, 2016 2:37am

Well, a normal map is supposed to sort of displace a material so it doesn't look flat, right? So when you apply it to two different materials, shouldn't they be displaced by the same factor? In other words, how can the paint appear to be above the metal if they have been equally displaced by the normal map? Or maybe you used the gizmo_scratches texture (that you used to mix the metal and paint shaders) to generate a normal map with appropriate displacement values where the metal would appear?