--- title: What Is a Normal Map? Normal Mapping for Game Artists description: "What is a normal map? Normal mapping explained for game artists: how normal maps work, how to bake one in Blender and use it in Unreal Engine." --- [Go Back Up](https://cada-edu.com/guides/what-is-a-normal-map-normal-mapping-for-game-artists#top) [Skip to Content](https://cada-edu.com/guides/what-is-a-normal-map-normal-mapping-for-game-artists#body) [![Copenhagen Academy of Digital Arts](https://cada-edu.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Logo_CADA_White_AlphaHD.png?width=200&height=60&name=Logo_CADA_White_AlphaHD.png "Copenhagen Academy of Digital Arts")](https://cada-edu.com/) Toggle Menu - [Educations](https://cada-edu.com/educations) Toggle children for Educations Main Menu (Press to Return) \> Educations - [Certificate in 3D for Games](https://cada-edu.com/certificate-in-3d-for-games) - [Diploma / BA (Hons) Degree](https://cada-edu.com/3d-digital-artist) - [Courses](https://cada-edu.com/courses) Toggle children for Courses Main Menu (Press to Return) \> Courses - [Free 3D Bootcamp](https://cada-edu.com/3dbootcamp) - [3D Animation Essentials](https://cada-edu.com/3d-animation-essentials) - [3D Portfolio Essentials](https://cada-edu.com/3d-portfolio-essentials) - [Sculpting in ZBrush](https://cada-edu.com/sculpting-in-zbrush-course) - [Unreal Engine for Filmmaking](https://cada-edu.com/unreal-engine-filmmaking-virtual-production) - [Continuing Education](https://cada-edu.com/continuing-education) - [Contact Us](https://cada-edu.com/contact) - Resources Toggle children for Resources Main Menu (Press to Return) \> Resources - [News](https://cada-edu.com/news) - [Guides](https://cada-edu.com/guides) - [Book Meeting](https://meetings-eu1.hubspot.com/adam-mayes) # What Is a Normal Map? Normal Mapping for Game Artists [mailto:?subject=What%20Is%20a%20Normal%20Map%3F%20Normal%20Mapping%20for%20Game%20Artists&body=https%3A%2F%2Fcada-edu.com%2Fguides%2Fwhat-is-a-normal-map-normal-mapping-for-game-artists](mailto:?subject=What%20Is%20a%20Normal%20Map%3F%20Normal%20Mapping%20for%20Game%20Artists&body=https%3A%2F%2Fcada-edu.com%2Fguides%2Fwhat-is-a-normal-map-normal-mapping-for-game-artists) A normal map is a texture that tells the renderer which way each point on a surface is facing, so a simple model can catch light as if it had far more detail than it really does. It is how a game character with a few thousand polygons can show stitched seams, pores and dents in the armour without the engine paying for millions of polygons. If you only remember one thing from this guide: a normal map changes lighting, not shape. ## What is a normal map? Every surface in 3D has a direction it faces, called its normal. The renderer uses that direction to work out how bright the surface should be: a surface facing the light is bright, a surface turned away is dark. On a low-poly model, each polygon is flat, so the normals change only from face to face. A normal map overrides that. It stores a new direction for every pixel of the texture, so the lighting behaves as if the surface had grooves, bumps and bevels that the geometry does not actually have. The silhouette of the model stays exactly the same. If you look at a normal-mapped brick wall from the side, the edge is still perfectly flat. That is why you still model the big forms in geometry and leave the normal map to handle the fine detail. ## How normal mapping works A normal map is an ordinary RGB image used as data. Each colour channel stores one axis of a direction: - **Red** stores the left and right tilt (X) - **Green** stores the up and down tilt (Y) - **Blue** stores how much the surface points straight out (Z) A pixel that points straight out from the surface has a value of roughly 128, 128, 255. That is the light purple-blue colour you see across most of a normal map. Where the colour shifts towards pink, green or darker blue, the surface is tilted in that direction. ### Tangent space and object space There are two common types of normal map. A **tangent space** normal map stores directions relative to the surface of the model. That is the purple-blue kind, and it is what you will use for almost everything in games, because it still works when the model bends or animates, and it can be tiled or mirrored. An **object space** normal map stores directions relative to the whole object, so it looks like a rainbow. It can be useful for static props or as an intermediate map when texturing, but it breaks when the mesh deforms. As a beginner, bake tangent space and skip object space for now. ## Why game artists rely on normal maps Games have to draw every frame in a fraction of a second, so every asset has a polygon budget. Normal maps are how artists fit high detail into that budget. The standard workflow for characters and props looks like this: 1. Sculpt or model a **high-poly** version with all the detail: wrinkles, scratches, panel lines, bevels. Digital sculpting in Blender is a core part of the 3D Art specialisation in our [Certificate in 3D for Games](https://cada-edu.com/certificate-in-3d-for-games). 2. Build a clean **low-poly** version over it, with good topology for animation and a sensible polygon count. Our guide to [retopology for games](https://cada-edu.com/guides/retopology-for-games-what-it-is-and-how-to-do-it-in-blender) covers this step. 3. **UV unwrap** the low-poly so it has space on the texture for every face. 4. **Bake** the detail from the high-poly onto the low-poly as a normal map. 5. Texture the low-poly, with the normal map providing the surface detail. This high-to-low workflow is core to 3D art for games. Learn it on one simple prop before you try it on a full character. ## Normal map vs bump map vs displacement map These three get mixed up a lot. They all add surface detail, but in different ways: - **Bump map:** a greyscale image where white is high and black is low. The renderer works out the lighting from the change in height. It is simple to paint, but it only gives an approximation and is less accurate than a normal map at showing which way a surface tilts. - **Normal map:** stores the direction directly in RGB, so it handles angled detail such as bevels and slopes far better. This is the standard for real-time game assets. - **Displacement map:** also greyscale height, but it actually moves the geometry. That changes the silhouette, but it needs lots of polygons to look good, so in games it is used selectively, for example on terrain or in specific materials, rather than on every asset. In practice you will often have a height map and a normal map together. The normal map does the lighting detail, and the height map can drive effects such as parallax or blending between materials. ## How to bake a normal map in Blender Baking means transferring the surface detail from your high-poly model into an image mapped onto your low-poly model. In Blender, the steps are: 1. **Line up the two models.** The high-poly and low-poly must sit in the same place, at the same scale. Apply scale and rotation on both. 2. **Check the low-poly UVs.** No overlapping islands (unless they are mirrored on purpose, see below) and enough space between islands for padding. Our guide to [UV mapping for games](https://cada-edu.com/guides/uv-mapping-for-games-how-to-uv-unwrap-a-model-in-blender) explains how to set this up. 3. **Create a target image.** In the low-poly's material, add an Image Texture node, create a new image (2048 by 2048 is a good start) and keep that node selected. Blender bakes into the selected image node. 4. **Set up the bake.** Switch the render engine to Cycles. In the Bake panel, set the bake type to Normal and the space to Tangent. 5. **Bake selected to active.** Tick Selected to Active. Select the high-poly first, then the low-poly last so it is the active object. 6. **Set the ray distance.** Use Extrusion and Max Ray Distance, or a cage, so the bake rays start just outside the low-poly and reach the high-poly surface. Start small and increase it until the gaps disappear. 7. **Bake and save.** Press Bake, check the result, then save the image. Blender does not save baked images automatically, and losing an unsaved bake is a classic beginner mistake. Many studios bake in a dedicated baking tool rather than in Blender, but the principles are identical: matching models, clean UVs, a sensible cage and correct settings. Learn them once and they carry over. ## Using normal maps in Blender and Unreal Engine ### In Blender Load the normal map in an Image Texture node and switch its colour space from sRGB to the non-colour data setting. This matters: a normal map is data, not a picture, and treating it as colour skews every direction. Then plug it into a Normal Map node and connect that to the Normal input of the Principled BSDF. Never plug the image straight into the Normal input. ### In Unreal Engine When you import the texture, open it and check that the compression settings are set to the normal map option and that sRGB is unticked. Unreal usually detects normal maps on import, but always check, because a wrongly set normal map gives washed-out, odd lighting. The other thing to know is the green channel. Blender bakes normal maps in the OpenGL convention (green pointing up), while Unreal Engine uses the DirectX convention (green pointing down). If you bring a Blender bake into Unreal unchanged, details that should stick out will look pushed in under some lights. Fix it by ticking Flip Green Channel in the texture settings, or by baking with the green channel flipped in the first place. Agree one convention for a project and stick to it. ## Common normal map problems and how to fix them - **Visible seams.** Usually the hard edges on the low-poly do not match the UV seams. Wherever you set a hard edge, split the UVs there too, and give islands enough padding so the bake can bleed past the edges. - **Wavy or gradient shading.** Large smooth faces with few polygons can produce strong gradients in the bake. Add a little supporting geometry, or use hard edges with matching UV splits on sharp corners. - **Skewed details.** Screws or panel lines that lean sideways mean the rays hit the high-poly at an angle. Adjust the cage, or add a support loop near the edge so the low-poly normals point more straight out. - **Black or missing areas.** The ray distance is too short, so the rays never reach the high-poly. Increase the extrusion or adjust the cage. - **Details look inverted.** The green channel convention is wrong for the engine. Flip the green channel. - **Problems on mirrored UVs.** If both halves of a model share the same UV space, move one half exactly one UV tile to the side before baking, so the bake only reads one half. Move it back afterwards. - **Shading changes after export.** Triangulate the low-poly before baking and exporting, so the engine splits quads into triangles the same way as the baker did. Blender and Unreal both use the MikkTSpace tangent basis, which helps the bake and the engine agree. ## Where normal maps fit in a PBR material Most game materials use PBR (physically based rendering) textures. A typical set includes base colour, roughness, metallic, ambient occlusion and a normal map. The normal map gives the shape of the small details, and the other maps decide what the surface is made of. A common workflow is to bake the normal map first, then use it, together with baked ambient occlusion and curvature maps, to drive wear and dirt in your texturing tool. Edges catch scratches, crevices collect grime. Get the normal bake right and everything built on top of it is easier. A beginner tip: do not try to bake every tiny detail into a unique normal map. Studios often combine a baked normal map for the large and medium detail with a tiling detail normal map for fabric weave, skin pores or metal grain. That keeps textures sharp up close without huge texture sizes. ## What studios look for When a lead looks at a prop or character in your portfolio, the normal map is one of the first things that shows whether you understand the game art pipeline. They look for: - clean bakes with no seams, waviness or skewed details - a sensible split between what is modelled in geometry and what is baked - efficient UVs with consistent texel density - an asset that holds up in an engine such as Unreal, under real lighting, not just in a render Showing the low-poly wireframe next to the final textured model, and the normal map itself, makes it easy for them to judge your work. ## Start building game-ready assets If you are new to 3D and want the basics first, the free [Blender 3D Bootcamp](https://cada-edu.com/3dbootcamp) covers the Blender basics you need before baking makes sense. It is six live online sessions over three weeks, no experience needed, and the final session takes your work into Unreal Engine. If you are ready to commit to a career in game art, the [Certificate in 3D for Games](https://cada-edu.com/certificate-in-3d-for-games) is a 60-week online programme where you try 3D Art, Animation, Tech Art and Procedural before choosing a specialisation, and build assets in team projects from a walkable environment to a vertical slice. No 3D experience or portfolio is needed to apply. ## CADA ## Ready to Transform your Business with Little Effort Using Brightlane? [Register Now](https://www.example.com) You May Like These ## Related Articles --- [![Copenhagen Academy of Digital Arts](https://cada-edu.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Logo_CADA_White_AlphaHD.png?width=200&height=60&name=Logo_CADA_White_AlphaHD.png "Copenhagen Academy of Digital Arts")](https://cada-edu.com) **Nyropsgade 23, 4. Floor** **1602 Copenhagen** [Contact us](https://cada-edu.com/contact) © Copenhagen Academy of Digital Arts. 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