Normal Map

A normal map makes a surface appear raised or indented when lit in a material. Start in Simple for the common controls; open Advanced when you need finer adjustments. Returning to Simple keeps your advanced settings.

From a height map

  1. Add Normal Map above File, Drawing Layer or Noise.
  2. Leave Input → Previous, or assign another Target. See effect sources for these controls.
  3. Choose Generation → Height Map and the channel that contains the height.
  4. Start with Strength 4 and Smoothing 1 px, then adjust the relief.
  5. Hide the source layer if you want to see only the normal map.

Light areas are high; dark areas are low. Invert Height reverses them. Strength makes the relief stronger; Smoothing softens fine bumps. For a Noise source with Linear Data encoding, choose Input Space → Linear in Advanced.

From a color texture

Choose Generation → Texture to estimate relief from an ordinary image. This is a starting point, not an exact reconstruction: shadows or painted color changes can look like dents.

In Advanced, choose Output → Height to check the inferred height. Adjust Fine / Medium / Large Detail for small texture, medium features and broad shapes. Light Removal defaults to 0.75 and reduces broad brightness variations. It helps when lighting in the source creates unwanted slopes, but can also remove genuine large-scale relief. Lower it or set it to zero if broad shapes lose their volume. Return Output to Normal when you are happy with the surface.

Useful finishing controls

  • Height Levels (in Advanced only): adjust Black/White Level and Gamma if the relief is too flat or too harsh.
  • Edges → Repeat: use for a seamless source.
  • Alpha → Opaque: make a solid map; Source keeps the source transparency.
  • Flip Y: try this if the target material shows bumps as dents.

Save for a material

For a normal map on its own, keep Normal blending, full opacity and unchanged Swizzle, without rearranging channels. Avoid color effects, which can distort the relief.

Choose Advanced → Encoding → Packed Color for PNG/TGA/PSD. Import the exported PNG or TGA into Unity as Normal Map, without grayscale conversion. Choose Encoding → Linear Data when your workflow needs a linear EXR or Texture2D.

Rotating a finished Normal Map layer rotates only its image: the relief is lit as though it had not rotated. For correctly oriented relief, transform the source before generating the map.