I've devised a way to capture normal and displacement maps from real 3D surfaces. It's easy! Just follow the steps below.
Materials:
You need these things:
1. Digital Camera
2. Computer with Photoshop and Nvidia's Texture Tools 3. Movable light-source
4. Subject. (In this example, Subject is a bowl of peanuts.)
Camera
Computer
Light source
Subject
Step 1:
With your camera fixed, photograph your subject four times, lighted from each of four directions. You'll want to experiment with the elevation of your light. Light from a low angle, but not so low that your subject is obscured by its own shadow.
Lighted From Above
Lighted From Left
Lighted From Below
Lighted From Right
Step 2:
Crop your photographs, and convert them to grayscale.
Lighted From Above
Lighted From Left
Lighted From Below
Lighted From Right
Step 3:
Create a new image (hereafter called "AboveLeft"), with your Above-lighted photograph for a green channel, and your Left-lighted photograph for a red channel.
AboveLeft:
green channel = Lighted From Above
red channel = Lighted From Left
