Texture extraction >
Extract a texture map

1. Select Maps > Extract Texture Maps > New Operation.

   The Extract Texture Maps window appears. For a complete description of all of the extraction properties see Extract Texture Maps properties.

2. Select Normal Map, Displacement Map, or both in the Maps to Generate options.
3. Specify the low resolution (target) model by selecting it within the 3D View, then click Use Selected.

   The target model name appears in the Target Model field.

4. Specify the high resolution (source) model(s) you want to sample by selecting it in the 3D View, then click Add Selected.

   The source model name(s) appears in the Source Models list. If an incorrect item appears in the list, simply select the item and click Remove.

5. Enter a Search Distance for the extraction by entering a value.

   The Search Distance is a physical measurement that determines how far the texture extraction feature will search to find any sculpted detail on the source model(s). It should be slightly larger than the distance between the maximum absolute displacement between the high resolution (source) mesh and the low resolution (target) mesh. You can select the Best Guess option if you are unsure.

   TipTo determine the distance between the source and target meshes, you can estimate the distance using the vertical line on the Sculpt tool that indicates the brush strength as a starting point. This line represents the distance the center of the tool moves the vertices in the current Mudbox units (the default is centimeters). You may need to experiment with the Search Distance value to get best results. See Troubleshoot texture extraction
6. Specify the Image Size for output.

   The Image Size determines the resolution of the image map and of the surface sampling between the source and target models.

7. Click the folder icon beside Base File Name and enter a file name Save As window that appears.

   This name is used as a prefix for the file name of each texture output.

8. In the Save As window, select an appropriate file format from the Save as type drop-down menu (which also specifies the Bits per Channel for the output texture(s)), and click Save.

   For more information, see The importance of image bit depth and Supported extraction file formats and bit depths.

9. Click Extract to begin the texture map extraction.

   A progress indicator appears during the extraction process.

   NoteMudbox supports the extraction of displacement maps on models with UVs that exist outside the 0 to 1 range. Each UV tile is extracted as a separate image file and saved to the extracted files directory. These files use the naming convention: <filename>_u1_v1_g1.tiff where the U and V flags indicate the UV tile coordinates, and g indicates the gain value for displacement.

If the texture extraction process fails to produce a map, or the map produced doesn’t meet your expectations, see Troubleshoot texture extraction.

NoteYou can preview an extracted normal map by importing it as a layer and assigning it to a bump channel in the Layers window. For more information, see View normal maps on a model.

Related topics

Texture extraction overview

Troubleshoot texture extraction

View normal maps on a model