The normal map is the blue, red and green image. When I refer to height maps and displacement maps I'm talking about the greyscale images, height maps and displacement maps are the same thing in the context of this video, just known as different names. They are used for displacing geometry. Normal maps don't alter the geometry but they create the illusion of 3d on 2d images for dynamic lighting in game engines.
@@artsquirrel thanks for quick response. In case I am having a black and white line drawing of a cake and i want to create a 3d model of that cake using blender. Can i use this method to get a sample height map and import into blender to create basic mesh and retopologies?
Yes as long as you just want a 2.5d bas relief cake effect you could use your drawing as a starting point for this method to create a height map. The height map could then be used in a displacement modifier on a subdivided plane or as an alpha in sculpting to create the 3d model. If you wanted a full 3D version in the round and not just a bas relief of your drawing you would need to model it or sculpt it using the drawing and cakes as reference.
